Psycho Fetish
by MasonFox86
Summary: THE ENDING IS HERE! Clarice's and Psycho Fetish's Last Waltz!!!! The entire story is complete!!!!
1. Default Chapter

1 Psycho Fetish  
  
  
  
1.1 By Mason Fox  
  
  
  
Authors Note:  
  
This story takes place after the events that happened in Hannibal the movie, I know I should really make it take place after what happened in the book but I didn't really believe that Clarice would fall in love with Hannibal, the ending just seemed a bit far fetched, so I used the ending of the movie. Clarice has resigned from the FBI and Hannibal has not even tried to contact her, which makes her believe he could be dead.  
  
I don't know whether anyone is going to bother reading it, so I'm writing an Introduction and the first chapter, and if it gets positive reviews I will consider writing the rest.  
  
Introduction: A Stranger in the Dark.  
  
Ellie was just fourteen and was already drinking like a redneck farmer, she was attending parties where they offered her various drugs and she gladly accepted. Her father had once warned her about the effects of drugs and alcohol but that was three years ago when he was still alive, and Ellie often thought that if he wasn't hit by the oncoming truck and wasn't splattered all over the main road of the town that she probably wouldn't be drinking and doing drugs so heavily. She went to her first party with her friend Samantha who was the same age as her and was already shooting heroine at the time, at first Ellie was reluctant to even kiss a male stranger but not she was giving blow jobs in the back alley to whoever wanted one. Through her own eyes she didn't see herself as a slut but then again through your own eyes you are never what people accuse you of being. Her mother was a workaholic and was also on the booze, if only her father had stayed home from work that day then Ellie might have a chance and leading a successful life, however he did go to work and hence was hit by the truck and splattered all over the road. That was life and Ellie had learned to take it or leave it.  
  
Ellie was dancing under the colourful lights that blasted her from up above the music was the kind that would give you a headache if you weren't high on something and right now she was. In her left hand was a glass filled with Jim Beam and Cola she had already had three cups of it, that with some Coke was enough to blow your mind away. There were people all around her pushing her and shoving her and she was just looking up at the ceiling at the lights as high as a kite.  
  
Her eyes moved down towards her watch and she saw the time, it was ten at night and if she didn't get home soon her mother would suspect something was up, her mother came home at around ten thirty and always checked her bed. If she wasn't there she would be busted, she knew her mother well enough to know that the police would be involved and that if the police came they would test her for drugs, a test that would result in positive. Her mother hated her going to these parties. She turned to Samantha and tried to shout but her voice was drowned in the music. Ellie's dyed blonde hair was changing colours under the flashing lights. She pointed towards the exit and Samantha understood, they both moved through the crowd of people together and came to the exit. They got out and Samantha immediately lit a cigarette. She drew back on it and let out a cloud of polluted smoke.  
  
"What did you drag me out here for?" Samantha asked, the bad thing about Samantha was when she got high or drunk she became selfish and if you tried to drag her away from a party she would get mad.  
  
"I have to go, my mother will be home in half an hour. If she sees I'm not in bed there will be hell to pay." Ellie said. Samantha looked at the ground and then back up again in a look of disgust.  
  
"Who cares, your fourteen you should be able to do what you want, you can either come back in with more or walk home by yourself, cause this party is fucking kicking, Marty is giving out free pot." Samantha said, she turned around and walked back inside the club. At first Ellie wanted to go back in but somewhere deep inside her was a sense of judgment that told her to just turn around and walk away, so she did. Her house was only four blocks away and if she hurried she could get there before her mother came home from work.  
  
She started down the path unaware that there was someone in the bushes watching her and breathing heavily. She walked her way down some steps and soon she was on the sidewalk. All the while the man behind her was watching and following her.  
  
Ellie walked faster and harder when she heard something behind her, it could have been just a rustling in the bushes but it seemed to be much more than that. She walked faster and harder and then looked out in front of her, there was the path that would lead her home. She ran towards the path and when she got there she stopped and turned around, there was nothing.  
  
"God damn its just your imagination." She muttered under her breath and turned around to start walk down the path.  
  
All of a sudden there was a shadow in front of her. She went to scream but it grabbed her mouth. She kicked at the shadow and felt something hard, the man groaned softly. He held her mouth with his left hand and grabbed her hair with the right. He pushed her head against the brick wall and she sighed.  
  
Ellie went to kick the man but he slammed her head against the brick wall behind her. She tried to scream but couldn't, she kicked but felt nothing but air. The shadow was holding her mouth and she couldn't make a sound. She kicked again and felt nothing, then he slammed her head against the wall again. She fell to her knees and onto her stomach breathing slowly. It was then when everything went dark.  
  
Chapter One: Clarice Starling  
  
Clarice was sleeping soundly, if you were too look at her you would think she was sleeping peacefully but her dreams were more wild than you could imagine. She still remembered Hannibal, the smell of his breath and those straight pointy teeth that showed when he smiled that awful smile of his. They were dreams that should would never let go of, like the dream of the lambs and the awful screaming that had not stopped even though she had solved the James Gumb case. Hannibal was not a psychopath in her mind and that was what scared her, the rest of the world saw him as a vicious killer and she saw him as much more than that, she saw him as a friend. The time flashed on the electronic alarm clock on her bedside table, it read nine. It was nine in the morning and she hadn't slept in like this for a long time. During the days when she worked for the FBI, she had to get up at the crack of dawn to be ready. She mostly did drug busts and other things that the public might consider standard FBI work, but to her it was much more than that. She quit the force because she was emotionally and physically drained and she can remember the exact moment she lost the power to work for the FBI. It was the moment she stepped into the dining room where Paul Krendler sat in front of Hannibal, it was then when Hannibal pulled the top part of his head off to reveal Paul's pulsing brain when she decided to pull the plug on her whole FBI career, she realised that she had seen things that she would consider normal that other people would gag at. It was at that precise moment when she decided to quit the FBI.  
  
However some old traits do not die and one of them was keeping her cell phone on her bedside table. It seldom ever rang and she was beginning to miss its soft electrical tune. That morning on Sunday it did ring and it woke her out of her deep sleep. She sat up in bed almost instantly and picked it up. Her hair was still red but was showing signs where it was greying at the front. She was getting old. She picked up the phone and answered.  
  
"Starling." She said and then realised how ridiculous it sounded, because she was no longer with the FBI and normal people didn't answer their phones by saying their last names. However she wasn't too embarrassed because the voice on the other end was one that she knew and loved, one that still considered an agent.  
  
"Hello Clarice, it's been a while." Jack Crawford said on the other line, she couldn't help but grin like an idiot, she had spoken with Jack for a long time.  
  
"It has indeed sir." She said and laughed a little bit, she wasn't sure whether he heard it or not.  
  
"Now Clarice, your not on the force anymore, you don't have to call me sir. Jack will do just fine." He said and they both laughed together even though the joke was lame. At the end of the laughter Jack coughed loudly on the phone, Clarice might be getting old but Jack was much older.  
  
"How may I help you Jack?" She asked, in a serious voice, her mind had started to comb through possible reasons why Jack would call this early in the morning especially from work, where he was busy all the time, especially now in the twenty first century.  
  
"Clarice, two hours ago a body was found in a small town, you may have heard of it Whispering Willows?" He asked, the name rang a few bells but it wasn't like she had been there before.  
  
"I've heard of it." She replied. There was a certain seriousness in his voice that made her nervous.  
  
"A fourteen year old girl who has been identified as Ellie Williams, she was raped several times and her head was smashed right open…" He said, the thought of the teenage girl with a head wide open made Clarice sick to the stomach and she wondered why she had to listen to it.  
  
"Jack, is there a point to this call?" She asked sounding frustrated and confused.  
  
"Well Clarice, I was wondering if you could come down her and check it out?" He asked. He was insane, Clarice couldn't go to a little town today, she had things to do and was going to lunch with her roommate.  
  
"Jack, I'm not an agent anymore. I quit. I cant go down…" She continued rubbing her head.  
  
"Clarice we found a note on her." He responded.  
  
"So…" She replied.  
  
"The note was addressed to you!" He said, Clarice had nothing to say she sat up in bed in shock, she was running over people in her mind, psychopaths that knew her that would leave a note to her on the body of a fourteen year old girl, only one sprang to mind. Hannibal Lecter, but it couldn't be him. He had no use with a fourteen year old girl. Or did he.  
  
"Clarice?" He asked on the other end of the phone as if he didn't know she was there. But he knew that she was on the other end of the line, Clarice wouldn't hang up after news like that.  
  
"I'm here." She responded. Her mother was open and she was staring at the wall of her room into the nothingness of the pink paint that desperately needed replacing.  
  
"I can get a car to come pick you up." He said. She nodded later understanding that he couldn't see her nodding.  
  
"I'll do it." She said simply, without waiting for a reply she hung up the phone. She got out of bed and started to pack her things. She was all of a sudden involved in a case. 


	2. The Case

Chapter Two: Journey to Whispering Willows  
  
The limousine, had come and the ride to the airport was something that Clarice didn't entirely remember, she went back to the discussions she had with Ardelia Mapp and how she told her she would never be involved in a case again, how she couldn't take it anymore. The whole conversation was a lie. The telephone in the car rang loudly twice before Clarice answered. She put the sleek black phone next to her ear and awaited the voice to follow.  
  
"Clarice? This is Jack. I'm going to meet you at the airport, I want to discuss some things over with you in the plane before we hit the crime scene." He said, his voice showed no emotion and had a dry mechanical feel to it, he almost sounded like a robot.  
  
"Okay then." She said and the line went dead, she put the phone down and continued to look out the window at the flashing objects going by, her eyes were looking out the window at the passing scene but she could stop thinking about the man that had changed her life in more way than one. Hannibal Lecter, his voice echoed through her mind and she would never forget his face. He had made her become a better agent and for that she was thankful but then her mind turned to all the terrible things he had done. She wondered if this was something to add to his list, it couldn't have been. She knew Hannibal better than any psychiatrist did, better than Barney who had known him for the duration of his stay at that horrid mental institution. Hannibal had done a lot of things that could be considered as evil but rape was almost certainly not one of them. She closed her eyes and remembered it all, her phone calls with inspector Pazzi, the dinner they had had with Paul Krendler of the FBI. They way he made him eat his own brain, something that was so vile and so disgusting but Hannibal made it seem elegant. She remembered when she was up against the fridge and he could smell his breath, could physically feel it on her face and when he had kissed her and she had wanted to kiss him back but something in the back of her mind told her to stop. Then when he chopped off his own hand with the knife, he would rather go without a hand than see her in pain. She felt something towards him and didn't know if it was some form of love.  
  
Her eyes opened and she was at the airport. She got out of the car dazed and it drove off, she would have thanked to driver for taking her there peacefully but had forgotten.  
  
Standing at the front of the airport was Jack Crawford, wearing a simple black coat and smiling, he had knew frames since she last saw him and while he was getting on in years, he must have been at least fifty five by now he was still handsome. She walked up to him and couldn't help but smile. Their eyes locked and they hugged a hug that felt awkward for them both.  
  
"You came." He said, as if they were on a date. They both walked into the airport, and almost straight away were talking about the case.  
  
"Give me the details." She said very professionally, she wanted to cut to the chase. She didn't want to be friendly with him, she had told him once that she was going to quit the FBI and he had supported her but now had found it so easy to drag her back to a case.  
  
"Ellie Williams, fourteen years old. Daughter of Sandra Williams, her father was hit by a truck a few years ago." He said beginning a tragic story, which they would both view as another day of work. He handed her a picture of Ellie, she had bleached hair and was sitting up straight smiling widely, she was so young, so innocent.  
  
"She was walking home from a party, one of those Rave things. She was intoxicated and high on cocaine at the time of death." He continued, this stopped Clarice dead in her tracks.  
  
"Did you just say she was high on Coke?" She asked, trying to confirm what she had just heard. He didn't say anything just nodded and went to keep walking but she didn't follow.  
  
"She was fourteen and already doing drugs?" She asked. He nodded again as if it was nothing. They continued to walk, Clarice gave the picture of the girl back to Jack.  
  
Jack had asked to carry the bags but she denied, she was a firm believer that she was capable of doing anything a man could do, besides penetration.  
  
Before she knew it, they were on the plane, she had gone through security and the alarm had gone off due to the gun in her bag, Jack cleared it though and she was allowed through. Although she had given up the FBI she still owned a gun for safety reasons. They flew first class and the flight was to be an hour long. They were showing some stupid comedy that neither Clarice of Jack were interested in, so they discussed the case.  
  
The girl was killed by five severe blows to the head, the killer had banged her head against the concrete path, if she was still alive after that a knife to the stomach would have finished the job, he didn't gut her or anything just stabbed her really deep and let her bleed all over the side walk. She could tell all this just by looking at the pictures. The pictures showed Ellie face down wearing a tight shirt and no pants. Her pale ass was sticking up in the sky and her head was turned to the left, her green eyes were open she was pale. There was a white piece of paper on her back. That had been the letter.  
  
"We have the letter back at the morgue, you can read it when we get there." Jack had said in a matter of fact way that he had always used when talking about a crime scene.  
  
"Has anyone opened it yet?" She asked, even though she had been living in Washington for years she still had a touch of the Southern accent in her voice, the one that Paul Krendler had always made fun of, not anymore though. She didn't attend his funeral, she was going to but at the last minute decided to see a movie with Ardelia instead.  
  
"No, we felt that you should be the first to read it." Jack replied, which was odd because if it were evidence than the lead investigator would have read which was him, but instead he had respected that the letter was her. She wondered what was going on inside that brilliant mind of his, and whether he was thinking the same thing she was.  
  
"You know, no body has mentioned it yet, I think they may be afraid of your reaction, but one of the possible suspects, I'm not saying that it was him. It's just he has given you letters before…" He said, he was rambling, something that he had always done when he was nervous, that was just a part of him that she had grown to know through time, a part of him that she loved.  
  
"Hannibal Lecter." She said simply, staring out the plane window at the blank nothingness of the sky, she could swear that she saw his face in the clouds but then blinked and the image had gone entirely.  
  
"Well, he is still at large, they never found him. I'm just saying it could be a possibility." He said when her eyes met his after the daydream she was just having.  
  
"It wasn't Hannibal." She said quite simply and she believed every word of it. Hannibal wouldn't have done something like this. Raping a child would affect his character. Not that his character was entirely up to scratch.  
  
"How can you be so sure?" He asked, the magazine he was reading had an image of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, each of them had an angry face splashed across their head, the magazine was at least a year old.  
  
"Hannibal has done a lot of things in his life. He has killed many people, some of them didn't deserve to die but he would never rape. Especially a teenager." She reported, Jack believed her because she had known Hannibal better than anyone else alive. She had spent time with him uncovering his deepest innermost secrets, she was the only one officer of the law to survive his wrath. Just look at Paul Krendler, the man wasn't civil to him and was now dead.  
  
Jack went back to his magazine and Clarice opened the orange folder to look at the pictures of the body again, searching in every way she knew how for a clue. Something to help this case move. At Whispering Willows she was to read a letter, what was in it she didn't know. After half an hour of looking at the girl she put the pictures back in the folder and looked out the window again. She closed her eyes.  
  
Chapter Three: The Letter.  
  
The plane landed and Clarice awoke from a disturbed slumber to see Jack getting her bags out of the over head compartment. She never trusted the airlines services after she lost a bag a few years back, ever since then she carried everything on the plane. She had slept uneasily for about forty-five minutes and didn't feel refreshed at all, only more tired. Without a word she stood up and straightened out her clothes, they were simple and black, the kind she always wore on a case. They left the plane and came to the airport. They walked out towards the entrance of the airport passing by duty free shops and fast food restaurants.  
  
"You hungry?" Jack asked, trying desperately to start a conversation up. She shook her head, she wanted to do anything besides eat. Her stomach was queasy and she if she ate a bite she would throw up. They came outside and Jack called a cab. Jack got in the front of the cab and Clarice stayed in the back with her two bags.  
  
"Do you know where the morgue is?" He asked to a taxi driver that was faceless to Clarice. He nodded and started to drive. Whispering Willows was a moderately quiet town, it had an airport that was nothing compared to the Washington D.C airport and was relatively small, it was a quiet fishing town, a place were Clarice had always wanted to start a family. Within minutes they were at the morgue. Jack paid the driver and got out, Clarice followed.  
  
The morgue was a small brown building that smelled of antiseptic liquid, the same smell that all medical features have. It was strange for a town to have a separate morgue, most small towns had their morgue in their main hospitals.  
  
As soon as she followed in behind Jack, they came to a hallway that was about ten meters long, at the front was a desk with an overweight woman dressed in cheap clothes. She would have been pretty ten years ago. She was writing something down in a quick jot. Clarice wondered why there weren't any computers in the place.  
  
"Jack Crawford." He said to the woman behind the counter, she looked up at him with a face that was covered in to much make up. She looked like an old prostitute if it was repeatedly hit with a bat.  
  
"Please go through. You know which door?" She asked, he nodded and then walked down the hall, they went to the farthest door at the end of the room marked. Autopsy. Clarice knew what it was instantly. They entered the room and were confronted by a steel table with the body of Ellie Williams on it. She was on her back and was wearing a white T-shirt with one of those yellow smiley faces on it. She wasn't wearing any pants and was displaying a tuft of brown pubic hair. Her skin looked pale, the way it would look if you had been dead through a cold night. There was a man in a green surgical uniform holding a scalpel. He wasn't wearing a breathing mask which was necessary due to law. She would have brought it up but wasn't in the mood. The man looked at her and took his gloves off. She shook hands with him and smiled.  
  
"You must be Clarice Starling. I'm Doctor Harris. First name Tom. Jack's told me all about you." He said, he was a little overweight and was getting on in years about the same age as Jack.  
  
"Hello Dr. Harris." She said sounding very professional. He shook his head and looked down at the blue tiled floor.  
  
"You don't have to call me that. Tom will do just fine." He said and smiled. She smiled back at him and turned to Jack. She looked him in his eyes and he knew exactly what she wanted.  
  
"The letter." He said. He turned around and scratched his head, he turned to a desk and took a white envelope off it. He handed it to her and she looked at it. It said Clarice Starling in cursive across the plain white side of it. It looked exactly like the ones she had received from Lecter all those years ago. Her eyes moved over her neatly written name and she froze, the memories of opening the letters hit her. She wondered what was inside.  
  
"Is there somewhere I can go to read this?" She asked Jack quietly so Tom couldn't hear. He nodded and pointed to an office in the room, it was about the size of a closet but had a desk where she could be alone to open the letter. She wondered off into the room and sat down in the uncomfortable swivel chair that's padding had worn out years ago. She cleared the desk of papers and put the envelope on the desk. She looked at it and let out a sigh of anticipation. Her mind wanted to open the note as fast as she could but the rest of her wanted to fly back home and go back to bed. She opened the envelope, took out the white piece of paper that was folded four times and unfolded it. She spread it out and started to read.  
  
To Clarice  
  
I've been watching you for the past few years now Clarice. I watched your highs and your lows, I watched you try to apprehend the infamous Hannibal Lecter and how you came so close to catching him. I watched as you threw the towel in on your FBI career and it was then when I knew it was you that I had to choose. You see Clarice I'm going to be caught eventually. I will never be as good at escaping as your old friend Hannibal and eventually I will be brought to justice. Where I will rot locked away in a cell. I know that someone will catch me so I think that I should have the right to decide who it is who will catch me. I want you to catch me Clarice. You are the only person strong enough, you may not know it yet but you are the most powerful agent in all of the FBI, stronger than Crawford, stronger than them all and it will take a strong person to catch me Clarice. The question now is when will you catch me. Depending on how well you work Clarice. Will you catch me today or tomorrow. You'll have to be pretty quick to catch me today.  
  
Oh and on another note I think your friend Ardelia Mapp could be in a spot of trouble.  
  
From:  
  
Psycho Fetish  
  
Clarice's eyes lit up in horror when she read the last sentence. Ardelia. He was after Ardelia. She stood up and ran out of the office. Jack was surprised to see her. It was the look that Clarice always gave when something was wrong.  
  
"What's wrong Clarice?" Jack asked chasing after her as she ran down the hallway. Towards the exit.  
  
"Ardelia, he has Ardelia. I need to get back to Washington!" She said and ran out the door. Jack chased her they were back on the side walk where they got out of the taxi, cars passed she ran up to one and put her hands out in front of it. Shouting at the person on the inside to stop, an elderly woman got out.  
  
"I need your car police business." She demanded, flashing her badge. The woman looked confused and then Jack started talking to her telling her that it was alright, that her car would be fine. When the old woman stopped shouting, Jack got into the car next to Clarice.  
  
"Clarice, calm down. It's probably an empty threat. Just to make you nervous." He said, he put his hands on her hands that were on the steering wheel. They were soothing and projected warmth that seemed to spread through her entire body.  
  
"No, I can't take that chance." She said and went to put her foot on the accelerator. He put his hand on her shoulder now and started to rub it trying desperately to rub it.  
  
"Ring her Clarice, Ring her first." He said. That was the only advice he could think of to tell her, he knew that she would go anyway despite his advice, but perhaps the sound of her friends voice might soothe her a bit. She nodded and got her cell phone out of her pocket.  
  
"Get out or come with me." She said. She knew that he would get out of the car and return to the autopsy room with Tom. She could feel it. If she were in trouble they could call the police and have them arrive at Starling's flat and take control of the situation. He got out of the car and Clarice drove off down the road towards the airport. She knew the way it was quite simple all she would have to do was drive down the main road and turn at the first left. She pushed a button on the phone and it rang. Ardelia's voice came through and Clarice sighed in relief. It was not much of a relief though, it just meant that the killer hadn't struck yet.  
  
"Ardelia, are you okay?" She asked desperately and out of breath. Ardekia made a strange sound as in what did you mean.  
  
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" She asked in confusion. Clarice sucked in the sweet air that she found difficult to breath in a few moments before Ardelia started talking.  
  
"Listen, I want you to lock every door in the house. I just got a threat, the guy I'm working on said your going to be in a lot of trouble." She said. Although Ardelia was alive and talking to her on the phone, she had strange gut instinct that said she may not be here much longer.  
  
"Okay." She said sounding even more confused, even a little afraid. She could hear Ardelia running through the house locking every door and window that she could find.  
  
"Ardelia, there is a fun in my sock and panty drawer, get it. Arm yourself." She said desperately. She was trying to talk to her friend and drive at the same time. She was over the speed limit and trying to dodge all different cars.  
  
"Clarice, you are starting to scare me." She said, she could hear that Ardelia was nearly crying. Then something dreadful happened, it was the thing that Clarice had tried to prepare for ever since she read the letter but when it came she was shock beyond repair. There was a loud crashing sound from the end of the phone line.  
  
"What was that?" She heard Ardelia yell and ask at the same time. Clarice stopped breathing, it was happening. She just hoped Ardelia had the gun to shoot the son of a bitch.  
  
"Ardelia?" She called into the phone loudly, there was nothing. But Clarice could here something on the end of the phone like a struggle. Ardelia was going to die.  
  
"Ardelia?" She called, tears formed at her eyes. What ever had happened was extremely bad and her gut instinct was telling her that Ardelia was dead. Then there was a strong breathing sound. It was him. It was the man who called himself Psycho Fetish. Then the phone went dead. She heard the beeping sound a phone makes when someone on the other line hangs up.  
  
"Ardelia?" She called again. Clarice pushed the button on the phone and dialled in 911. The phone rang and an operator answered.  
  
"What's the emergency?" The operator asked showing nothing in her voice that resembled emotion.  
  
"Someone's in my house. You need to get there right away." Clarice yelled. She was confused and didn't know what to say. Her best friend was in trouble. She found herself giving the woman the address of her Washington flat. She hung up the phone and drove to the airport. 


	3. chapters 4-5

1 Chapter Four: Ardelia Mapp  
  
By the time Clarice had arrived at her apartment building, after hours of waiting for the plane and the plane trip back to Washington, the place was swarming with police, when the taxi headed down her street her heart sank when she saw the red and blue lights of police cars. It could have meant anything, she could be alive and safe, maybe the guy had never struck or maybe Ardelia had the gun and shot him, they were all possibilities but the thing that shocked her the most was the fact that when she saw the lights the whole thing was finally confirmed, it was all real. She had something to be worried about. The cab stopped and she got out, she flipped the driver a few bills without even thinking about getting change and ran up to the entrance of her apartment building. There were cops everywhere a bad sign. She saw no sign of an ambulance, maybe they had taken her to hospital already, or maybe she was dead. Clarice ran up to a big black man that seemed to have some sort of leader stature with the other officers.  
  
"What's happened here?" Clarice asked desperately, wanting an answer, any answer just something to kill the awful suspense she could feel all around her.  
  
"Sorry, no press." The man said, looking at the ground projecting nothing but sorrow. She suddenly felt enraged, not particularly at the man but at life and how today she was dealt a shitty hand. She pulled out her temporary badge that was issued to her by Crawford on the plane and held it out to the man.  
  
"I'm Clarice Starling, FB…" She said, remembering that she wasn't really in the FBI and that she hadn't meant to say that.  
  
"I live here." She recovered. He looked at her and could tell by the sincerity in her eyes that she was telling the absolute truth. He grabbed the end of the police tape and let her into the crime scene. She ran to the entrance and took the stairs, she only lived on level two so it would be a waste to wait for an elevator. When she got to the second floor she looked all the way down the hallway to where her room was, right at the end and saw police taking photographs of the outside of the apartment, she jogged up there. She came to an officer taking pictures and stopped.  
  
"Excuse me can I get through?" She asked, trying to be nice. Why the hell she should be expected to be nice was beyond her. He moved out the way and she entered the apartment, men were taking pictures and others were dusting for prints. There was a trail of red blood on the white carpet that made her sick to the stomach. She ran into Ardelia's room and the door was closed. She pushed it open to see four cops taking pictures of the bed and a couple of others examining the naked body stretched across it. It was Ardelia. Clarice didn't drop to the floor, she didn't openly sob and hug the nearest person she just stood there looking silently at the body. No tears came and she wondered if she should be crying. She suddenly felt the urge to vomit. She turned to stop looking at the body, as it was physically impossible to close her eyes.  
  
"Jesus." She murmured to herself and no one around her heard her. She closed her eyes and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She prepared herself and turned around to look at the body. Ardelia was completely naked her arms out and her legs together looking not unlike Christ did on the cross. There was a large open whole in her stomach and blood leaking from the back of her frizzy black hair. Her eyes were open and they were staring directly at the ceiling. She noticed a small envelope between her breasts that were red from her blood. She walked up to it wondering why none of the police had stopped, they knew who she was from the television that was why. She was the famous one who shot Evelda Drumgo and the woman that almost taken Hannibal Lecter down. She walked up to the body and then the tears started to form, she grabbed the letter from between her breasts and walked out of the room. She couldn't stand to be in there any longer and was afraid that she would be sick all over the corpse. She left the room and came to the blue sofa in front of the television. She sat down and closed her eyes, she opened the letter unfolded it and began to read.  
  
1.1 Well Clarice, You were too slow this time.  
  
Now you know the consequences of being slow, poor Ardelia lost this round. Just make sure another innocent wont die because of you.  
  
Washington Airport  
  
Tomorrow, Four o'clock P.M  
  
Locker no. 27, Pass code: 2286  
  
Come alone.  
  
Don't be late Clarice. You don't know who will be next.  
  
-Psycho Fetish.  
  
She dropped the note and watched it slowly hit the white carpet. She looked up and then the tears came in great waves, she hadn't cried like this in years and it felt good in a way to get it all out. She remembered the police finishing up and then ambulance workers coming to take the body but she couldn't remember how she got to the hotel room sitting at the cheap dining table across from Jack Crawford. Her cheeks were red from all the crying and there was a look of sadness on his face that she hadn't seen since his wife died. He wasn't crying, in fact Clarice had never seen him cry before. He just looked really sad, he looked like someone would look if they were unable to cry, maybe Jack Crawford wasn't able to cry. She was sipping from a mug of hot coffee, that tasted somewhere between metallic, hot water and battery acid. Still the caffeine gave her a little boost and that's what she needed.  
  
"Where are we?" She asked in all honesty, she truly didn't know. She could sort of remember a car ride to a hotel but didn't know whether she was in Washington or Whispering Willows.  
  
"We are in a hotel down your street, I thought it would be best for you to stay here tonight. Can I get you anything?" He asked, trying to sound sorry for what had happened, he was rubbing her hands trying to comfort her but they were cold and limp and showed no warmth. She knew his plan, he would not talk about her body until tomorrow around eleven, then he would mention the note and the fact that she had to be at the airport to open the locker or someone else would die, Clarice had a different take on the situation.  
  
"What did he do to her?" Clarice asked, with a look of bitter anger on her face, she remembered the smiley face on the poor girls t-shirt and smiled slightly, thinking how ironic the situation was.  
  
"Maybe, this better wait till tomorrow." Jack said, the way he always said it, with not emotion in his voice.  
  
"No, now!" She said almost yelling, she wanted to take her anger out on someone and if Psycho Fetish wasn't around then Jack would have to do. Jack knew Clarice was ready to take the information, even though it was morbid. So he told her without trying to soften the story, if he had tried that she would be able to detect it miles away.  
  
"He raped her four times, twice in the vaginal area and twice in the open wound in her stomach. We found traces of semen and tried the D.N.A testing lab to search for a criminal record. We also tested his fingerprints. We found nothing. If he has killed before he wasn't caught for it, At least not in this country." He said and took a long drag on the cigarette in his left hand. Clarice put her head down and was surprised at how she wasn't shocked by this. She was shocked but not the way a normal person would if they heard this information.  
  
"He's a sick fuck." She whispered and Crawford nodded. He let out a cloud of polluted air and it disappeared as it rose in the air.  
  
"You want me to go to the airport tomorrow, to open the locker." She said, she knew all about what was happening, after all she was the first one to read the note.  
  
"To be honest yes. He said in the note he would kill again. We have to find him. He wants you to find him. He will keep killing until you find him." Crawford added. She looked at him and nodded, she then took the cigarette from his hand and took a puff from it, and the smoke felt good and soothing on her lungs. The reason Clarice was getting over Ardelia's death so well was because she was used to death, a lot of people she knew had died and it was just a normal fact in her life. Ardelia was a good friend and Clarice would never forget her. The sound of a cell phone interrupted the silence in the room, it was Crawford's he picked it up pushed a button and put it too his ear.  
  
"Jack Crawford." He said, as he ran his fingers through his thinning hair, it was in desperate need of a wash.  
  
"Hey Jack it's me Tom Harris, listen you know the shirt Ellie was wearing, the smiley face one." He heard Tom on the other line say. He nodded and said yes at the same time.  
  
"Well, I have news. She wasn't wearing that shirt at the Rave party. I also called the forensics specialty after you phoned me about Ardelia and they found the same shirt at the end of the bed." Tom said. He was onto something. The man was leaving this shirt as some sort of wacky calling card. Crawford took his glasses off and rubbed his tired old eyes. He was trying to soak all the new information in.  
  
"He's leaving these shirts as a calling card of some sort." Tom said. Jack was trying to find the point of this call. Then remembered telling Tom if he had any theories about the killings to call him.  
  
"That's good Tom, I want you to check for any form of D.N.A or prints, try to find something." Jack said. They talked some more and then they hung up. Clarice had moved over to the bed and was fast asleep. Jack walked over to her and smiled, he pulled the blanket over her and went to the other bed opposite her. He got in and was soon fast asleep.  
  
Chapter Five: Washington Airport  
  
The rest of the day went by slowly and Jack was on his cell phone for most of the morning organising a special team to be in the airport when Starling opened the locker. He wanted to be sure against anyone, so he got a five-man team to hide in the woman's bathroom and six special undercover agents to just walk around in the airport. He wanted today to go off smooth and easy and he wanted Starling to feel safe. After all the arrangements were made and Crawford had some time to himself he sat on the bed next to Starling who was watching something on the television, he turned it off and turned to her.  
  
"Are you okay about this?" He asked looking at her deep in the eyes as if he cared about her. In a way he did, but not in the way Clarice wanted him to care about her.  
  
"Yes, I'll be fine. What's going to happen?" She asked, she had listened to most of the conversations on the phone and had a fair idea of how this whole thing was going to work out, but only heard Crawford's side of the conversation and so wanted to be fully aware of what was happening.  
  
"You'll enter the airport doors at three forty five, the lockers are about two minutes away from the front entrance. You'll go to the lockers open locker twenty five with the code 2286, you'll be by yourself, but we have under cover officers floating around you, we also have a five man S.W.A.T team waiting in the woman's bathroom in case anything goes wrong. Clarice this should go down without a hitch but just in case, I've issued you this." He said as he pulled out a gun in a holster. It was small and a lot different to the gun she used to carry, the one with skateboard grip tape handle. The one that had shot Evelda Drumgo. She put it around her ankle and hid it by wearing long pants.  
  
"Clarice, you'll be safe out there." Jack said and smiled. He kissed her on the cheek and got up looking at his watch.  
  
"Let's go." He said. Clarice got up and left the hotel room without bothering to clean it up at all, she would have it was a habit of hers perhaps something her chamber maid mother had left her. She got out and sure enough waiting for her was her Mustang. The one that she had known and loved for years.  
  
"Of course, you will have to go alone, but we will be right behind you." Jack said trying to reassure her. It wasn't working, Clarice was scared and nervous but at the same time kind of exhilarated. This man had killed her roommate and she was ready to get him back. She got in the car started it. It boomed loudly and a wry smile came to her face. She left the hotel parking lot and headed toward the airport.  
  
Clarice arrived at the airport and pulled over, she got out at the front even though she was meant to park in the lot. She didn't have the time for that. An Airport security guard walked up to her, but before he got a word in she flashed her identification at her. She suddenly remembered how Hannibal had referred to them as credentials and smiled.  
  
"FBI!" She said without looking at the man, he understood and turned around as if he never saw her. She entered the airport and glanced at her digital watch on her left wrist. Three forty five. She walked into the airport and looked for the large sign hanging from the roof that said lockers. There were thousands of people around her and she knew that a handful of them were under covers and that they were watching her every move. She walked to the left towards the lockers and was there in about two minutes exactly as Jack had predicted.  
  
She arrived at the keypad and pressed the monitor, it was a touch screen computer, there was a friendly female voice from within the computer.  
  
"Welcome to Washington airport, locker service, if you would like to purchase a locker press the dollar sign, to open an existing locker click the press the picture of a key." The voice said and waited a response. Clarice moved her finger toward the key and pushed it.  
  
"Please enter your locked number by using the number pad below the screen." The voice said. She padded in the number twenty-five and waited. The computer loaded.  
  
"Please type the pass code to your locker using the same key pad." The locker said, she punched in the code and the locked next to her opened. She turned towards it and opened it. There was a single mobile phone sitting inside it. Then it rang. She reached in and picked up, she pushed a button and put it to her ear. It was the same model phone as he current mobile.  
  
"Hello?" She asked anxiously, wondering what he would sound like. She had fought with herself as to whether or not she should be aggressive and decided to be cool and calm.  
  
"Well Clarice, you showed up and you aren't late. Jessica has a chance." The man said, he was using a voice altering system and sounded like a robot. She paused and waited for him to talk again. He had someone, Jessica.  
  
"In the locker, under where the mobile was is a picture. It's Jessica, I took her three hours earlier from the airports day-care centre. I will kill her Clarice, you know I will." He said. She took the picture and looked at it, a young girl with red hair and blue eyes stared back at her smiling. She almost gagged because she knew that this monster would indeed do it. He would kill and rape the little girl.  
  
"What do you want me to do?" She asked nervously, He was in control and she hated it.  
  
"Now Clarice I'm not a fool, I know there are unmarked police patrolling the airport, so we are going to go someplace else. Do you know where Johnston's and Son's warehouse is?" He asked his robot voice was a little unclear but she could understand every word he said. She knew the place, it was an abandoned warehouse she had driven past it a lot and had known it because of the faded picture on it, it was the picture of a man holding out a tray of biscuits wearing a hat just like her fathers.  
  
"Yes." She said turning around looking out into the crowd, scanning everyone that had a mobile phone to see if it were him in the crowd.  
  
"I want you too go there, and if I see anyone follow you, Jessica dies!" He said, she stood there unable to move. She was about to go to the old warehouse and would have no help from the police.  
  
"What do you want?" She asked desperately, she thought of Ardelia, and her dead body lying on the bed, she was talking to the man that had killed and raped her best friend.  
  
"I just want to talk." He said, and then laughed a little. She was shocked and started to walk, it took her a few minutes to walk at a normal pace, as her legs were stiff. She had to get there or else Jessica was dead.  
  
"Oh and Clarice just to prove that I have Jessica here she is!" The robotic voice said, there was some thumping noises from the phone and then a little girl was on.  
  
"Please help me lady, he said he was going to kill me if you don't." She said between sobs. Clarice wanted to console her but she was telling the harsh, bitter truth.  
  
"It's okay honey." She said sounding like a mother on the end, trying to reassure the little girl whose life could easily end at any moment. There was a thumping on the end of the phone again and it went back to Psycho Fetish.  
  
"Good bye Clarice." The robot voice said and then the phone went dead, she dropped it and it smashed on the ground, she started to run as hard and as fast as she could. She suddenly wanted to be there. She wanted to help the girl no matter how much she was hurt. With her right hand she picked grabbed her cell phone and dialled in the number Crawford had given her. It was how she could reach her. It didn't even ring. He answered.  
  
"Jack, he wants me to meet him at a warehouse." She said as she ran, her huffing and puffing almost made her voice inaudible.  
  
"Which one?" Jack asked.  
  
"I can' say, if you follow me, he's going to kill a little girl. Don't follow me Jack, I'm deadly serious. Don't follow me." She said and put the phone in her jacket pocket. She could feel the gun strapped to her ankle; it was heavy and dragging her down emotionally. Guns meant danger, especially when you were dealing with something like this. She got to the front of the airport and got into her mustang again. She sped off towards the warehouse. She hoped to god that Crawford wouldn't follow her. Clarice was about to meet Psycho Fetish. 


	4. Lecter

1 Chapter Six: The Ware-House  
  
Clarice came to the entrance of the parking lot to the warehouse. She turned the steering wheel and entered not knowing exactly what she felt, it was somewhere between being frightened and getting a bizarre adrenaline rush. She stopped the car and got out, her cell phone hummed. She answered it.  
  
"Clarice, tell me where you are!" Jack demanded, trying to sound far superior to her, and although he was a higher rank Clarice knew when she could over step him.  
  
"Jack, he will kill her if you follow me." She said as she walked towards the door, she suddenly understood how Psycho Fetish worked, if you didn't do what he said then he would kill, that was all there was to it.  
  
"Clarice, you have to tell us. You are in danger!" Jack demanded, she stopped and thought of something to say. If this were a movie then she would come up with some cheesy line like 'danger is my middle name.' The thought actually brought a smile to her face. Then she thought of something realistic to say but couldn't.  
  
"No more calls Jack." She said. She pushed the button on the phone and it went dead. She dropped her phone onto the loose gravel on the ground and walked into the warehouse.  
  
When she arrived inside, it was empty except for a man standing behind a little girl. He was wearing a black overcoat and a smiley facemask, like the one on Ellie's shirt. She walked up to him and couldn't help but feel nervous, in his left hand was a knife and it was pointing at the little girl's throat and in the other hand was a small voice box, the kind they gave to cancer patience who had to have their voice boxes removed.  
  
"Nice to finally meet you Clarice." He said in a robotic tone. She looked at him and realised it was the same voice he had used on the phone.  
  
"What do you want?" She asked nervously, at first she wasn't sure if he heard her.  
  
"Clarice, I wanted to meet the person who will eventually catch me. Now take off your gun, and don't lie to me. You have a gun connected to you ankle, remove it." He said not moving the knife away from the little girl, who was blindfolded and obviously drugged because she wasn't screaming but squirming like a worm on the end of a hook. How did he know she was carrying a weapon, she had put it on in the room and wore long pants. There was no way he could know. Clarice bent down and took the gun out of the holster strapped to her ankle.  
  
"Throw it to the centre of the room." He said. Clarice obeyed and threw the gun into the centre of the room; it bounced twice when it landed.  
  
"Why are you doing this?" Clarice asked, trying hard to project her voice so it would reach him.  
  
"Do you know the sort of satisfaction you get over hearing some little bitch scream, and the feel of there blood on your hands, its remarkable. Your friend Ardelia screamed when I fucked her. She moaned like a slut." He said. Clarice tried not to take the whole thing personally, he was trying to break her and Clarice was not about to let that happen. Still the remark was very hurtful.  
  
"What do you want from me?" Clarice asked, pushing the image of her flatmate being raped after she was dead, something that stuck on her mind the chewing gum on a shoe.  
  
"Clarice, I will be caught, and when I am I will be the most famous killer of them all, more famous than Charles Manson, bigger than Hannibal Lecter. After all what sort of psychopath could slit the throat of a little girl." He said. Clarice's eye lit up in horror as she watched Psycho Fetish slit Jessica's throat. She screamed and ran for the gun she picked it up and held out in front of her like she had done so many times before. She looked up and saw that Psycho Fetish was gone, he had ran through a door behind him. She ran out the door just in time to see a grey van drive off. She aimed the van at the tires and fired a round, I missed. It turned around the corner and was gone.  
  
Clarice ran back into the warehouse to check the little girl. She saw the girl quivering on the ground and a puddle of blood forming under her throat. She ran and dropped to her knees.  
  
"Oh Jesus. Fuck!" She yelled and supported the little girls head, which was still warm, her eyes were open staring up at the roof into nothingness. There was nothing she could do, the little girl was dead. Then the tears came. She cried openly for everything, for Ardelia Mapp for Ellie and for little Jessica. She could remember the SWAT team breaking in and Jack Crawford hugging her, she hugged him back and continued to cry on his shoulder. Jessica was dead. Clarice closed her eyes and didn't open them.  
  
Chapter Seven: A letter from the Good Doctor.  
  
Clarice awoke in the bed of the hotel; sitting at the table was Jack Crawford a cigarette in his mouth and a bottle of cheap whiskey in his hand. He was watching Clarice and when she finally opened her eyes he smiled at her. He moved over to her and ran his old hands through her hair and she found it comforting.  
  
"I fucked up." She said, she sound dazed and croaky. He shook his head and kissed her cheek.  
  
"You didn't and you know it. Jessica was meant to die." Jack said. In a way she understood him completely and wanted to be free of this wave of guilt that had hit her entire body.  
  
"He killed her for shock value." He said and stood up her returned to the table and put out his cigarette. He sat down and sipped from his whiskey bottle. Then he reached down and pulled out Clarice's laptop computer and mobile phone she had dropped in the gravel.  
  
"I got your computer, in case you wanted to go online." He said and handed her the computer, she put it next to her and fumbled for the remote control next to the bed. She found it and turned on the television. The picture of Washington Airport came up and there was a reporter talking.  
  
"It all began at Washington Airport, when Special Agent Clarice Starling, famous for her involvement with Hannibal Lecter, was chasing a serial killer. After a confrontation at an old warehouse a man killed a little girl. Jessica." The reporter said, it was a female reporter and by the sound of her voice she was black. Clarice turned off the television.  
  
"We have another man hunt don't we?" Clarice asked Crawford. He looked at her without his glasses on and his eyes looked so tired.  
  
"Yes." He said simply and stood up, he felt agitated for some reason and wanted to be outside, for fresh air.  
  
"I'm going to get a coffee." He said and left the hotel room without saying a word. Clarice turned on her laptop computer. It hummed with life and the LCD screen became blue displaying shortcuts on her desktop. She got a long cable from within the computer and connected it to her mobile phone so she could have Internet access. She clicked on the blue lower case 'e' icon and connected. There was the hum of the connection sound and then she was online. The first thing she did was check her mail. She hadn't checked for a few days and wanted to clean out any junk mail. She waited for the voice to tell her how much mail she had.  
  
"You have one new message." The voice said. She clicked on the image of an envelope.  
  
To: Clarice Starling  
  
From: H. Lecter M.D  
  
At first she thought it was just some stupid nerdy teenager pretending but something told her too read the message and when she opened it she knew the truth.  
  
Dear Clarice:  
  
I thought that you left the FBI and that you would never become involved with it again, after all that's what you said after the report of the Paul Krendler incident. Why did you join back again Clarice, was it because even though you have been a good agent those lambs wouldn't stop screaming, was it because the killer struck you right where it hurt killing Ardelia Mapp. Remember the good old times, down in the dungeon where you asked me nervously about Buffalo Bill, remember how I help you Clarice, I hope so because they are times I will never forget. I can help you Clarice with the knew killer, you see when I heard about your little return to the FBI I flew straight to Washington to be there. This killer is unlike anyone you have tried to catch before, he feels nothing and you will need someone like him to catch him Clarice. You will need my help Clarice; there is no doubt about that. Meet me at the park in front of the hotel your staying at, at the statue of Abraham Lincoln, and I will help you Clarice. Bring me everything you have on this man who calls himself Psycho Fetish.  
  
Yours Truly  
  
Hannibal Lecter M.D  
  
PS:  
  
I believe or relationship has grown above you trying to catch me, come alone Clarice, if you are wearing a wire or are planning to bust me I will know and wont show up. You once told me that you would never ask me to stop Clarice, you once showed me respect after the phone call I gave you when you graduated. I know you will come alone Clarice.  
  
Clarice deleted the message as soon as she read it, as she didn't want anyone else to read it. She considered what she was going to do and decided to meet Hannibal in the park. She would have to if she wanted to catch Psycho Fetish, he was good at catching people out. Jack would make the case go on for too long and it was above doing him a favour. The monster had killed her best friend it was personal now. Clarice Starling wanted revenge. 


	5. chapters 8-9

Chapter Eight: Disaster Strikes  
  
Clarice Starling got out of bed at six at night after some much needed rest. It took her a while to decide whether she would tell anyone about the Lecter incident. She decided that bringing the police into it was not a good idea, after all their relationship had moved passed the point where she was trying to do him rather considerably since their last meeting. Clarice would never forget that evening when she woke up with stitches in the wound where she had been shot. She would never forget the way Paul Krendler looked at her and smiled, that retarded smile of his. Now two years after that incident and Clarice knew that Hannibal meant her no harm, so in respect she didn't want to harm him.  
  
She came to the park at six thirty and followed the path that would take her to the statue. It was dark out but not so dark that you couldn't see the surroundings, in fact she could see the faces of random people rather well. Soon the streetlights would shimmer on and the park would be lit up. She knew that park well as her and Ardelia used to run through, the key word was used to and Clarice wanted the person to pay. She wanted to see Psycho Fetish bleed for Ardelia and for Jessica. She wanted good old- fashioned revenge, and if she wanted what she wanted the person to go to would be the one that changed her life forever. The one that made her look at life in different ways. The one that changed the way she thought about love and elegance in ways that she could never imagine. Somewhere down inside her wanted to love him and the rest of her, the one that knew about good judgement and reason. The part of her that was most like her father knew the things that he had done was wrong. He was a maniac, a monster. People all over the world wanted him dead.  
  
When she saw the figure standing in front of the statue, everything around her turned to a blur. The other people walking in the park didn't matter, as far as she was concerned. There was only her and the man standing in front of her. The one wearing the white brimmed hat and the plain black suit. Hannibal Lecter.  
  
She walked up to Hannibal and put her hand on his back, not knowing any other suitable way to draw his attention. He turned and smiled removing his spectacles. Those square black teeth of his just pointing out of his mouth.  
  
"Good Evening Clarice." He said in the high-pitched metallic voice of his, the voice that Clarice heard in her dreams. The voice that she would remember until the day she died. She wanted to give up Hannibal, wished there was a way to let go of him, but there was none. She knew that the therapists she would go to, would try and tell her what he did wrong but she knew all of that. Shit, she had seen what he had done, experienced one of his killings. She saw above all of that, above Paul Krendler, she saw the good person in Hannibal Lecter.  
  
"Good Evening Doctor Lecter." She said the first thing she could think of. She didn't know whether to talk to him like an escaped convict or an old friend she received and email from not four hours ago. Hannibal moved up to her and grabbed her by the elbow, he moved her gracefully not hurting her, his touch was pleasant. She wanted to stay in his grasp forever but didn't want to be seduced by the killer. She moved with him there footsteps became one, there heart beats became one and she was with him. There was no one around her to stop her from being with him. Before there was Krendler but now they were truly alone.  
  
"Tell me Clarice, do you still sleep with a gun under your pillow?" He asked her gracefully. Clarice didn't know what he meant, but knew it had something to do with her leaving the FBI.  
  
"You said you would never take part in another case again, that was your official statement Clarice. Why now, why did you join back again?" He asked her. The truth was that she didn't know. She wouldn't know until Hannibal told her why. Hannibal knew her better than she knew herself.  
  
"There was a letter, addressed to me." She managed to spit out, even though it was difficult to talk.  
  
"No Clarice, that wasn't it. You want Jack to phone you that day. You waiting for him and even though you were mad at him somewhere deep inside of you wanted to thank him for calling. Your head said you had truly left the FBI, but your heart was still an agent." He said. Clarice didn't know how to respond, and didn't have to because it was then when something horrible happened. Something that Clarice had never expected. Something that shocked them both.  
  
"FBI. FREEZE!" It was the booming voice of Jack Crawford and while he was old, he still managed to louden his voice like a normal agent. Clarice froze in her tracks and realised the horrible truth. Hannibal stood there, his hands in the air looking at Clarice. She returned the gaze and it was one of complete and utter disappointment.  
  
"Well Clarice, this is disappointing." He said. Clarice wasn't responsible for this. She wanted to some how tell Hannibal this but didn't know how. She noticed two unmarked van stop and about five men came out of each holding guns in front of them. This was it. The shit had hit the fan. Hannibal Lecter was caught once more.  
  
"Starling, get down. Hit the deck." It was Crawford again. She shook her head to Hannibal and tried to speak, all the while he was looking straight into the eyes of Jack the one that had pulled this whole operation.  
  
"I didn't know. I swear." She said. He shook his head and put his finger up to her mouth signalling her to hush up. She dropped to the ground and all the while her eyes didn't leave Hannibal's.  
  
Hannibal Lecter moved his eyes out of Clarice's. He could have stayed there looking at her all day. Suddenly the park was quiet. The people walking around it on the ground. He saw the SWAT team rush before him and knew he had not much time before he would be in another cell. He looked at Jack and smiled and realised that Jack was smiling too. This was a bonus to Jack, he had caught Hannibal Lecter.  
  
"Well Jack, looks like you won this round." He said and laughed a little. The SWAT team pointed there guns towards Hannibal and pulled the trigger. There was a loud deafening sound and Clarice screamed as she watched Hannibal fall to the ground limp. He had five bullets in him. He couldn't survive this. Clarice stood up and ran towards Jack to hit him. She felt blind rage for him. And love for the man on the ground.  
  
"You son of a bitch!" She yelled and swung a punch at him. He ducked it and grabbed her. Running his hands through her hair and it felt strangely comforting.  
  
"It's okay Clarice. They are tranquillisers, he will be fine. He is just sleeping." He said. Clarice managed to relax watching Hannibal on the ground in a haze. She noticed his stump of a hand, the one he had cut off to get away. He could have cut her hand off but didn't. She realised how she had let him down. He would go to prison for this.  
  
Chapter Nine: Lecter in a cell.  
  
The news splashed information about how Hannibal Lecter had been apprehended and it was the biggest thing on the news since the September eleven attacks. Clarice, went back to her apartment and stayed there for two weeks before going to visit Hannibal in his Cell. She didn't call Crawford and assumed that she was off the case. She wanted to find Psycho Fetish by herself now. She couldn't trust Crawford.  
  
It turns out that Crawford and his crew of men had read the email by hacking into her account before she did. They waited at the park and ceased the moment. As an act of apology for invading her privacy Jack didn't leak out the information that she didn't want Hannibal behind bars. It wasn't enough. Clarice didn't care anymore. She wanted to see Psycho Fetish die for what he did and her burning hatred for Jack Crawford made part of her wanted to see him in pain.  
  
Her mustang boomed up the entrance of Washington State penitentiary. They had cleared a whole floor dedicated to keeping Lecter contained. They didn't want another version of what happened twelve years ago. When she arrived, Clarice was forced to give her weapons to security she walked through three gates where the officers had to open the key lock simultaneously and then after that she was frisked.  
  
It took her about twenty minutes to get through security and when she finally came to the chamber the guard had to punch in an eight digit code, and have a retina scan. A lot to keep one man under tight security.  
  
His cell was similar to the one in Memphis when he escaped. She walked up to his cell and her heard her heels clapping on the smooth wooden floorboards. He could smell her perfume from here.  
  
Clarice was nervous about what to say. She wondered if he knew the truth about how they caught him. She was surprised to see that he did. Clarice sat down on a chair and waited for Hannibal's attention he turned around. It was dark outside and Clarice was prepared to stay as long as had too. There was no time limit of her stay and that suited her just fine. She didn't want to talk to Hannibal about personal issues. Now it was just about Psycho Fetish. He turned to face her.  
  
"Good Evening once again Clarice." He said and smiled. He was sitting on a single chair chained to it. There was a bag coming from his crotch area that held a decent supply of past urine.  
  
"Doctor, just so you know, I didn't tell them about you. It was Crawford. He hacked into my mail account…" She said, she was ready to give him the explanation she had practised over many times on the trip there. He simply nodded his head and put a single finger to his lips.  
  
"I know Clarice, don't worry, I don't blame you for this. I knew it would happen sooner of later." He said. In that voice of his, she didn't know what to do so she decided to cut right to the chase.  
  
"I was wondering if you could read over some of these files, they are the Psych Fetish cases." She said. He laughed allowed.  
  
"Clarice, I'm not allowed to take a shit without being watched." He said, something that would sound so trashy coming from any other man, but he made it seem strangely elegant.  
  
"Right…Hannibal I need your help on this. I can get you some freedom if you help me. You can get better living arrangements. Help me get this man." She said sounding so desperate. Hannibal considered the factors over in his mind and decided to agree to the deal. He did like the sound of a better cell.  
  
"Clarice, you seem so determined to find this man, is it because he killed your friend?" He asked her. She nodded at him. It was indeed why she wanted to find this man.  
  
"I will read through the files, but I don't need them to give you a short profile of him right now." He said. She was suddenly excited. There was a new hope at finding the man.  
  
"The man you are looking for wants to become famous, and if you work his case he will become famous. That's why he is in it Clarice. Now leave the files and talk Crawford about getting better living arrangements for me. Go Clarice." He said. He lowered his head and she left the files by the cell. She got up off the chair and left the facility. On the way home she picked up her cell phone, and rang Crawford.  
  
"Jack Crawford here." He said sounding tired. She hated him a lot but needed something that only he could give. She swallowed her rage and decided to talk to him like a normal person instead of giving him an earful of abuse.  
  
"It's Clarice here." She said. Not knowing how to sound. She at first was going to suck up to Crawford but then realised he would see right through it.  
  
"Starling. If this is about the Psycho Fetish case, I've dropped you. Even though you would be a great asset to the case you don't have to work it if you don't want to." He said. In his voice Clarice noticed that he desperately wanted her back.  
  
"Jack, I will go back to the case on one condition." She said. Waiting for a response, to see how eager he was.  
  
"Yes?" He asked. She detected excitement in his voice something that she knew would get her the deal that she wanted.  
  
"I want Hannibal to be given more freedom, he is going to help me with the case but only if you left him have a bed, a table. For Christ sake he is strapped to a chair." She said. Jack nodded on the other line. This seemed reasonable for him.  
  
"I want unlimited access to his cell, its going to be like good old times when I interviewed him about Buffalo Bill. If this is going to be done, It has to be done right." She said. That was all that she wanted. She wanted to find Psycho Fetish for personal reasons; if Ardelia didn't die then she probably wouldn't come back to the case.  
  
"Okay, you get what you want. Clarice how are you feeling?" He asked. She was enraged at him. He no longer had the right to discuss personal things with her. She pushed the hang up button on the phone and dropped it on the passenger's side. Tomorrow was when all of it would begin. The savage mind games Hannibal had played with her down in the dungeon would be resurrected and she would be the main player. 


	6. Chapters 10-11

1 Chapter Ten: Like Good Old Times  
  
Clarice waited a few more days, trying to prepare herself for the long gruelling interviews with Hannibal, she knew that he would test her limits and push them. She knew that in the end it would make her stronger and she loved him for that, but right now the last thing she wanted was a challenge. Right now all she wanted was to put a bullet in Psycho Fetish. She craved revenge more than an ex smoker craves a cigarette after a fine meal. She wanted to see the blood of Psycho Fetish fall and she knew that she would one day. It was getting to that day that made her worry.  
  
She went back to Hannibal two days after they renewed his cell and went by the usual security checks with, although I didn't take as long because they had her name on the visitor list courtesy of Jack Crawford. She went into the new cell and it wasn't much in the way of luxury. There was a single bed that had a thin mattress built into it, a steel table that was bolted to the ground; there was a toilet in there as well. It didn't offer much in the way of privacy. When Clarice got into the main cell room Hannibal was sitting at the table reading over the files she gave him. They weren't much certainly not in the way of identifying the killer. They had some case reports from various other officers, some profiles on killers who used the same techniques as the guy. It wasn't much but it was enough for Hannibal, Clarice knew that he had a brilliant mind, he could take little bits of information and form a profile that not even one of the best profilers like Crawford could create. He would have been good as an agent if he weren't a cannibal.  
  
Clarice walked up and went to sit down, just before she did she had an image flashback of the first time she walked down the horrible stretch that was on the way to Hannibal's cell. When Miggs threw semen at her and swore at her. She was shocked by him that day, but if someone was to do the same thing. She would probably wipe it off and keep walking as if nothing had happened. That was one of the reasons she wanted to leave the FBI. Clarice sat down and Hannibal looked up from the pieces of paper that contained her report on the dialogue between Psycho Fetish and herself.  
  
"Hello Clarice." He said simply. Clarice caught a glance at her watch it was almost one, Hannibal had just had lunch. It was something barely cooked, she could smell the blood of an animal on his breath.  
  
"Hannibal." She said treating him with respect. That was how you got far with Hannibal, if you treated him with respect than he would treat you with the same respect back.  
  
"Have you managed to find anything?" She asked nervously. She hadn't spoke about another killer to Hannibal in over a decade. She was waiting for his response, hoping it was not a question and they wouldn't get in the old mind game of his.  
  
"Clarice, Why did you run from the FBI?" He asked in the way of his that made Clarice almost physically shiver.  
  
"That has nothing to do with this Doctor." She said, trying desperately to change the subject, she already knew that she would have no such luck, as Hannibal would never drop something that he wanted to talk about.  
  
"Oh, I think it does Clarice…" He said. Clarice suddenly was brought back to the time she was in Memphis trying to get information out of him fast but he ignored her and went on.  
  
"Doctor, this isn't helping the case!" She pleaded. But he closed his eyes and breathed in air, not sweet freedom air that he had enjoyed once not long ago, but the metallic air of being in chains. The ones he last experience about twelve years ago. Twelve years ago seemed along time but Hannibal only remembered it to be a day.  
  
"Clarice! You need me. You know you do. Jack Crawford will just sit around and let this case go unnoticed. You want revenge Clarice and to get revenge you need me!" He said. She sat down and decided to give into the doctor's mind games. She picked her brain for possible answers to his questions.  
  
"Now Clarice, answer me. Why did you leave the FBI?" He asked, looking deep into her eyes. He could get lost there forever and staring back at him, she didn't know it but she was thinking the exact same thing.  
  
"Because, I had had enough." She said, trying her best to cover up the real answer that she didn't know yet. The one that she was sure to find out and she knew it would hurt.  
  
"Clarice, that's not good enough. Tell me why!" He demanded, his voice didn't rise at all but he sounded so demanding like a powerful male teacher. Clarice struggled trying to think of what to say.  
  
"Come on Clarice, deep down inside, you know why you left. Tell me Clarice!" He said, encouraging her now. She wanted to answer him so much, just so she could find out about Psycho Fetish.  
  
"I left because…because I had seen too much. My father was a sheriff. I thought that being in the FBI would be about catching criminals, putting them in jail and throwing away the key…" She said. She was discovering something inside her that she had meant to talk about with someone for years. It felt satisfying in a way, like scratching an itchy spot on your back.  
  
"You thought that it would be an adventure, but when you joined you realised that the world, was not a sugar coated place like in the movies you used to go and see with Ardelia, the world is a place of death and sickness." He said. It was all true, she understood every word of it. It was all correct she had learnt why she truly wanted to be out of the FBI and as usual Hannibal knew more than she did about her own soul, her own way of thinking.  
  
"I thought that I could just get the bad guys, that it would be easy but…" She said, and hesitated. Hannibal leaned forward waiting for her to continue. When she didn't he spoke in.  
  
"But what Clarice? Did you realise that it wasn't easy. That you had to work for it." He asked. She shook her head, the first time he had been wrong in a long time.  
  
"I could do the work, I could catch the crooks. But…" She hesitated again, Hannibal noticed a small tear coming out of her left eye. He wanted to kiss her cheek and taste her salty tears. He loved her more than he had loved any other being.  
  
"But what Clarice. What happened?" He asked. He was picking at the ground, hoping to open the treasure chest that lay deep within Clarice.  
  
"But I realised, that it wasn't just that simple. My sense of judgement was put to the test. I found I could trust criminals more than I could trust people around me." She continued. Tears were forming at her eyes and she wanted to cry them all out. She wished she had never joined the FBI. No! She wished she had joined and kissed Hannibal back that day and left with him. No! Clarice was so confused. She didn't know what to think. It made her hurt deep down inside.  
  
"That's not all Clarice!" He said. And then she uncovered something inside her that she might have regretted if she though twice.  
  
"I realised that I loved you!" She yelled. Hannibal was shocked he sat back in his chair and watched her. She started crying. Clarice got up and went to leave. She couldn't be in the same room as him. That was why she had left the FBI because she realised that she loved a monster, she thought that by leaving she could give it all up and leave the connection between her and Hannibal behind but in fact it made everything a lot worse.  
  
Clarice got up and left, she fished some tissues from her purse but was stopped by Hannibal's voice.  
  
"Clarice, you filled your end of the bargain, don't you want to know about Psycho Fetish?" He asked. Clarice ran back to the cell and put her hands around the bars that were just wide enough for Hannibal to stick the front part of his face through.  
  
"What Doctor Lecter? What do you know?" She asked desperately. He smiled at her and sniffed her hair that was in desperate need of a wash but he loved the smell of anyway.  
  
"This man the one that calls himself Psycho Fetish. He doesn't like killing, in fact he punishes himself after would. His mother was strict and every-time he did something wrong she would touch him in ways that were both good and bad. She made him feel belittled like he was nothing." He said. Clarice was waiting for the rest. Hannibal was giving her what she needed. In her hand was a pad and she was jotting down the information.  
  
"Why do you think he put the smiley face shirts on them Clarice? Its because after he is done with them the smiley face T-shirts gives them a sense of happiness. Without the smiley shirts he wouldn't be able to do anything. He rapes them yes. But he doesn't like too." He said. Clarice was jotting it all down and Hannibal paused to watch her write, a way that seemed almost sexy to him.  
  
"He's new at killing he hasn't done it before! He says that he likes the feel of a woman screaming because of him but he truly doesn't. Clarice why do you think he killed in Whispering Willows first and then in Washington? Its because he came from there Clarice." He said. She jotted down faster the tears in her eyes dried up into salty stains and she noticed him eyeing them off like they were some sort of prize.  
  
"What are you saying?" She asked, she didn't fully understand what was going on. She understood fragments of it but not enough. She stood there and looked at him.  
  
"He thought that if he started by killing someone he knew that it would grow easier over time. He thought that killing someone he knew and hated would be easier. But he soon realised that it would grow harder." He said. It hit her hard over the head like she struck by lightening. She suddenly had a lead.  
  
"He knew Ellie. He knew her!" She said. He nodded and smiled at her. She smiled back at him.  
  
"Good Clarice that FBI mind of yours hasn't completely died." He said and smiled.  
  
"Oh and Clarice, the reason he is killing is to become famous. He said that he would be bigger than Charles Manson and even me, he said that by being caught by you would make him famous and he will be famous but not famous enough. He wants to be the most famous killer in the world Clarice. He wants to be the one to kill Clarice Starling of the FBI! Watch your back Clarice!" He said. Clarice nodded and it shocked her that he really wanted her dead. Clarice left the building and got into her car. Hannibal went back to reading, today's events were bizarre but he finally knew that she loved him.  
  
Clarice got into her Mustang when she left and started to drive away. She headed towards her apartment to grab the bags that she hadn't unpacked since her last trip. She was going back to Whispering Willows with her one and only lead. She would need someone to help her and as much as she regretted she picked up her cell phone and punched in Jack Crawford's number. It rang twice and then he answered.  
  
"Jack Crawford here." He said, he was in the middle of lunch with someone else. She could hear the background people laughing and have happy time something she hadn't experienced in years.  
  
"Jack its me Clarice. I have a lead. Why do you think Psycho Fetish killed first in Whispering Willows and then in Washington? It was because he wanted to see if he could go through with it. He killed someone he knew and hated hoping it would grow easier over time." She said, she was breathless after her mini speech and realised that she had taken in a real breath since she left the prison. She gasped in the sweet air. Jack was a smart man and he got what she said right away.  
  
"You mean he knew Ellie?" He asked, suddenly coming to terms with it all. He knew that if it wasn't for Hannibal they would have never found out, and that Hannibal Lecter was like a snake but this was all they had to go on.  
  
"What do we do now sir?" She asked, regretting she called him sir, as she was still furious with him for hacking into her email account.  
  
"We go back to Whispering Willows and we talk to Ellie's friends, find out if she knew any older guys." He said. She could hear him getting up from the table and walking outside. She could hear the other members of his party asking him where he was going and him quietly telling them he had a case. He got in the car and Clarice could hear him start it up and start driving.  
  
"Okay, I'll go home and get my things, you organise a ticket and ring me back." She said. She waited for him to agree and then she hung up the phone. She dropped it in the driver's side of the Mustang and then returned to her apartment. Jack rang her back and told her there was a flight that left at two and she accepted it. They flew back to Whispering Willows together. They didn't talk on the whole flight and Clarice drifted into a disturbed sleep that was haunted by the wretched voice of Psycho Fetish. She imagined what the man could look like in her dream and wondered if she was close to finding him or not. These questions would soon be answered. She could feel that the whole case would soon be over.  
  
  
  
Chapter Eleven: Back to Whispering Willows.  
  
They arrived at Whispering Willows at about three and checked into a hotel. Clarice unlocked the room while Jack paid the bill at the front desk. She got in and put her bags down. The room was rather small and not unlike the one she stayed in at Washington. Her whole body felt tired and right now Clarice wanted to sleep, but there was something about her that wanted to keep going to find the killer. Jack came back with two cans of Soda something that Clarice didn't feel like at all. She refused it and he sat down on the bed next to her.  
  
"I'm sorry about betraying you Clarice. But it was Hannibal Lecter. You have to remember he is a psychopath." He said as he sipped from the soda wondering if they had gotten fizzier over the years or if he was just getting older.  
  
"I know, I was thinking about calling you. But something inside me…" she went to continue but he interrupted her.  
  
"You love him don't you?" Jack asked, it was the inevitable question that Clarice didn't know how to answer, she had loved him but now it was all hazy.  
  
"I don't think I can love him. I tried to once but then I remembered what he did." She said. He put the soda down and moved closer towards her. He had that serious look in his eyes the one she admired about him.  
  
"Clarice, he wants to hurt you. He wants you to feel pain. That's what he does." He said. Somehow Clarice believed that even though she knew it wasn't true.  
  
"It's different with me Jack. You don't know how different it is." She said. He moved away from her as if he were suddenly repelled. Clarice was younger than he was but she knew more about the world in ways that he would never understand. He thought that bad guys were bad guys and that's all that there was but she understood the inner most honesty.  
  
"Let's go to the school. I want to talk with the principal." She said. He stood up and straightened his clothes the way he always did and nodded. They left the hotel and drove to the school  
  
They came to the school at around three thirty and it was empty, a few minutes earlier it would have been buzzing with teenagers, but now it was a ghost town, if there wasn't litter and lockers every where it would seem like no one lived there. They were met at the door by the principal who was expecting them. They were led into an office and offered coffee, which they both denied. The principal was a woman named Joyce Greywood and Clarice found that she understood the principal completely. Maybe it was because they were both women with powerful jobs.  
  
"Hello Joyce, it's really nice to meet you, this is my partner Jack Crawford. We are investigating a students death." She said. She was reluctant to refer to Jack as her partner but did so anyway because for this case they were partners.  
  
"Ellie." Joyce said, her face went sad which was strange because Joyce was such a happy person. Her lovely smile had boomed at them since she met them at the front gate and now it was as if she had a split personality.  
  
"Yes. Anyway, we want to know if it would be possible to get the home addresses of some of her friends?" Clarice asked. She knew she must have sounded rude but she wanted to get right to the point chit-chat would not help her find the person who killed and raped her best friend.  
  
"Well, she had lots of friends. She was a popular girl. I guess her best friend would be Samantha Fox." She said. Clarice smiled at the woman and they felt some kind of strange bonding.  
  
"Could we have Samantha's address?" Starling asked hoping that she was not one of those tight assed principals that wouldn't give out student's address if their lives depended on it. The people that she had grown to hate.  
  
"It's actually against our policy but…" She continued. But was usually always a bad word but now it was a glimmer of hope.  
  
"Seeing as it's helping catching the man who hurt Ellie, I'm sure Sammy wont mind." Joyce said. She put her hand on the computer mouse and moved it over the screen clicking on one of the data bases the school computers teacher had made. An amateur job but it served well. She tapped in the name Samantha Fox and smiled. She printed off the address for the agents.  
  
Clarice took the piece of paper and put it in her pocket. They talked a little longer about the horrible things that happened in the world and Joyce and Jack seemed to click together. Joyce was about his age as well maybe there was a romance Starling thought and smiled. After about fifteen minutes of friendly chatter Clarice stood up.  
  
"We best leave now. We have to talk to Samantha." She said. Crawford smiled and stood up, she would probably get a grinding about being rude later in the hotel from him but she didn't care about that. All she wanted to do now was talk to Samantha Fox the one that was once friends with Ellie the first victim of the killer.  
  
They arrived at Samantha Fox's house and got out of the car that was strangely good for a rental. They walked up to the house and rang the doorbell. Samantha herself answered. She was wearing that of what any country town girl who was trying to be hip would wear.  
  
"Hello Samantha. I'm Clarice Starling; I'm with the FBI. We are looking into your friend Ellie's death." She said. Samantha nodded.  
  
"Come in." She said. Samantha seemed very shy and sad, Clarice wondered if she had the time to grieve properly. She also noticed that Samantha had track marks in her arms, they were barely noticeable but she knew they were marks from heroin injections because she dealt with that sort of thing. Clarice debated whether or not to give Samantha the drug speech and decided not to. All she wanted was information.  
  
They sat down at a table and Samantha made some coffee that they accepted. Clarice needs something to keep her awake and she liked the idea of something warm, as the town was strangely cold today. They began to talk about things. Jack started off because he was great with kids. He was a warm man the type that Clarice wanted to farther her children. She smiled at him when he talked to Samantha about the darkness of the case. After a while of him trying to warm her up to it all and Samantha being hesitant to the whole interview Clarice decided to ask the serious questions.  
  
"Samantha, I wanted to know if Ellie had any enemies to speak of? Any adult friends that she was angry at?" Clarice asked. It took Samantha a while to respond which was bad news, this was going to take a while.  
  
"Not that I know of." She said and sipped the coffee, which had now gone cold. Clarice drank it anyway as the boost was something she needed.  
  
"Did she hate any of the teachers at her school?" Jack asked in that warm loving voice of his. A good question one that Clarice wondered why she hadn't thought of it first.  
  
"No, not really I mean she disliked some teachers, but they didn't hate her enough to…well you know." Samantha said. Clarice noticed the innocence in her voice and guessed that she was good at lying. By night Samantha was a wild child Starling knew that much by looking at her arms and the heroin injection markings. She wondered if Jack noticed them.  
  
"Well, there was this one guy, Sherman his name was. He was the janitor at the school. She used to tease him right to his. I don't know why she hated him so much." Samantha said. A light bulb popped in her head. It was the Janitor, her gut instinct knew it, it was almost as if she saw the Janitor kill and rape the girl.  
  
"How do you mean tease him?" Jack asked, he was just stumbling onto the mystery.  
  
"Well, she kept teasing him in sexual ways like, once she walked up to him and said 'you want this?' and pulled up her skirt showing her legs to him. Then she would call him a 'dirty old man.' You see there was a rumour going around that the Janitor raped a young boy. Man she was horrible to him. In the end I think he left." She said. Clarice was suddenly alarmed by it all. Ellie had been raped to the school Janitor. Sherman the school Janitor raped her. Jack would have been eager to stay and ask more questions but Clarice had heard enough.  
  
"That will be all." Clarice said and stood up they left. Jack thanked her for the coffee and Samantha thanked him back for being so nice. As soon as they left Clarice took out her mobile phone and put it to her ear she dialled in Joyce's mobile number. After a single ring Joyce answered.  
  
"Hello?" Joyce asked in the friendly way she always greeted on her phone. Clarice wished she was like Joyce and was blind to the real world, as Lecter had called it.  
  
"It's Clarice Starling. Remember me?" She asked. Clarice chanted as she walked to the car.  
  
"Oh yes." She said and Starling could feel her smile joyfully on the other line and wished she could be like that.  
  
"Hey I wanted to know if you knew the Janitor of your school's address. Sherman?" She asked not knowing what would happen. She hoped that she would say yes and give the address, then they would go to his house and arrest him and it would all be done but of course it was never that simple.  
  
"Well, he left town, you see there was this horrible rumour…" She went to continue, but it was information that Clarice had heard before and had no time for right now. Her and Jack got into the car.  
  
"I know about the rumour." She said.  
  
"Well, he left about three months ago, I have the address of his old home if you want. I don't think they sold it yet, why is he a suspect?" Joyce asked, Clarice could imagine that Joyce felt a little like the old woman from 'Murder She Wrote' being a part of an FBI mystery like this.  
  
"Well…yes. Could I have that address? His old house?" She asked. She got a note pad from her purse and jotted down the address of the house. After that she said her goodbyes and hung up the phone. It was time to go and check out his old house. The one where the killer had once lived. Clarice suddenly had no need for the caffeine boost she was high on an adrenaline rush. 


	7. chapters 12-13

Chapter Twelve: Lecter Escapes.  
  
Hannibal had thought of his escape plan the moment he set foot into the jail. He would wait silently like a cat waiting for the perfect moment to pounce, and when he saw that moment he would take action. His previous plan the one that had got him out the last time would be expected and so the security measures were tighter but nothing was tight enough to hold Hannibal who was infamous for escaping. The two guards came with his food which was chops cooked extra bloody the way he liked them and side dishes of potato's and peas. He liked the meals they made him but tonight he wouldn't eat them. They came to his cage carrying the meal and steam was rising from it he looked at it and at them. There was a latch they could open that was just small enough for them to put the plate through, there was no way of squeezing under it. He waited for them to arrive and then the first step of his plan would take place. He waited patiently for the exact moment. The guard looked up at him and Hannibal collapsed pretending to go into a seizure. It would be easy killing these two guards as it had been easy the last time they didn't treat him with respect and for that they would die. Hannibal excreted saliva out his mouth and the guard panicked not knowing what on earth to do. That was the main reason he escaped because the guard in charge always panicked.  
  
"Jesus Christ Lloyd." The guard said in his southern accent. This would be a story he could have told his grand kids if he wasn't about to die.  
  
"He's having some kind of seizure!" Lloyd screamed. The name of the other guard was Terry and he was from the same town as Lloyd they had grown up together and were going to die together. Lloyd ran to the entrance of the cage and opened it.  
  
"Should I go and call for help?" Terry asked nervously. Lloyd shook his head in utter desperation. There was sweat coming from his forehead.  
  
"No, no. You saw what this son of a bitch did to Pembry in Memphis. Keep your gun on him." Lloyd yelled. Terry obeyed his friend and took out his gun aiming it at the prisoner who was now throwing up all over the floor. Lloyd got Hannibal up and went to cuff him, he leaned him up and Hannibal saw his chance. He pulled out Lloyd's gun as quick as lightening and shot Lloyd point blank range in the stomach. Terry panicked again and went to pull the trigger of his gun. Hannibal moved the body of Lloyd out of the way and took two shots at Terry before he could even move. Terry fell to the ground and Hannibal knew he hadn't much time, he ran over to the desk where the two guards had once sat and ate. He knew right about know someone would have complained about guns being fired on the upper level just as they did last time.  
  
"Hello? Is everything alright up there?" Asked a female voice from Terry's radio transmitter he smiled and thought: 'Yes everything is just fine.'  
  
Across from the desk about two strides was a power box, it supplied the power to the two lower levels, which included his cell and the security floor below. He shot at it and the lights went out. Thirty seconds later the back up generators were on and they submitted a dim light that Hannibal could only just see in. Everything was going exactly to plan. He turned around and looked at the bodies he had caused.  
  
"Ready when you are Terry." He said remembering how he had said the exact same thing about Pembry and smiling. He walked over to the body and started his grand master plan.  
  
Lisa Goldberg had been the main security chief on charge when she heard to shots fired on the floor above her. She didn't panic even though her blood in her veins froze. She moved her hand to her gun holster and unhooked it, remaining perfectly calm. She moved her other to her radio transmitter and pushed the button.  
  
"Hello? Is everything alright up there?" She asked. There was no response then the power went out and a few moments later the dim back up generator lights went on. She could hardly see down the corridor where the main door to the cell was. She pulled her gun out and moved towards the door feeling how ridiculous she would look if it were just a hoax. There was a loud beep from her computer, she turned back and looked at it. It reported to her that Terry Bridges had just done the retina scan to get out of the place. It wanted confirmation. She confirmed it and heard the door in front of her open. Then she heard footsteps.  
  
"Hello? Terry?" She called. Suddenly feeling fear that what if it wasn't Terry she had let into the place. What if it was him. She ran back to the alarm and went to push it. She did so and nothing happened. Why wasn't it working.  
  
"Sorry Lisa, the power is down and hence the alarms don't work." It was the voice of Hannibal Lecter. A chill went down her spine and she shivered. She tightened her grip on the gun. She could hear him inch his way forward.  
  
"Don't do that. Step backwards." She yelled, she heard footsteps but they were of Hannibal coming closer. She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger. Once. Twice. Three times. She shot at Hannibal three times and in the dim light could see his body fall to the ground. She walked forward and took out her torch. She shined it on Hannibal only to see that it wasn't Hannibal at all, it was Terry.  
  
"Jesus!" She said and turned around. Hannibal punched her hard in the face and her gun flew a meter behind her. He grabbed her and held the barrel of the gun hard in her face.  
  
"Now Lisa, don't scream. You're going to help me get out of here!" He said quietly holding the gun hard in her cheek. She nodded and he smiled. This was going to work.  
  
Hannibal led her outside after she entered the clearance code to leave to facility. She walked out into the car park all the while Hannibal had a gun in her back. They walked over to her car.  
  
"Now, I want you to phone your boss and tell him that Hannibal Lecter has escaped and driven off in your car down that road." He said pointing towards the road that was silent. She nodded not saying anything. There were camera's all around them but not one was working at all.  
  
Lisa put the phone to her ear and waited for Jack Crawford to answer. He did with his name the way he always answered the telephone.  
  
"Jack? Fuck! Hannibal Lecter he killed Terry and Lloyd!" She said trying to sound panicky and it was working as far as Hannibal was concerned. She started crying that was not part of the act but fear for her very life. It made it seem real.  
  
"Okay, Send all the cops that you have. He's stolen my car and is driving up route 66." She yelled and hung up the phone. The lie was in place. Hannibal pointed the gun towards her mouth.  
  
"Get in the car Lisa." He said. She obeyed and walked over to the car sitting in the drivers seat. Hannibal reached over and grabbed her purse from her handbag. He took out her Drivers License and read it.  
  
"Is this where you live Lisa?" He asked never taking his eyes off her except to read the card. She nodded in panic and his smiled.  
  
"Do you have any kids?" He asked. She nodded and he smiled even more. This added to his brilliant plan even further.  
  
"Lisa, I know your address now, if you tell the police which direction I am headed or if you don't drive the car like you would normally, I will hunt you down and kill your children right before your eyes." He said. At those words Lisa started to cry out loud he listened to her whimpers and loved the sight of her crying. She nodded and got into the car. Route 66, which was the road that ran past the facility where Hannibal was kept, was a long virtually flat piece of road. Hannibal noticed red and white lights coming down it now.  
  
"Get in and drive down that road until they apprehend you!" He said. She nodded and got in the car. He watched as she backed out of the driveway and sped down the road at a fast pace. He knew she would do it. She was just a pathetic woman who was weak. He knew that she would not disobey him and it would mean her death.  
  
Hannibal broke out into a light jog and ran the other direction towards a small river that was big but not big enough to get on any map of Washington. He put his feet in the water to test it and it wasn't cold but strangely warm. Hannibal took his prison clothes off and began to swim, towards the other side. He started out fast and got slower that's when he saw the explosion.  
  
Officer John Hicks received a phone call from Jack Crawford a minute ago about Lecter's escape he got in the squad car and drove towards the prison; he was told that he would meet with other officers on the way. He came to the road and met with the officers like Jack had said. He contacted with the man in charge of the operation and they slowed down when they saw Lisa's car leave the facility. They got out and his superior Wayne Knight looked through binoculars at the car. It was dark outside and he could hardly see. When he saw that there was only one shadow in the car he gave the okay to John. John walked to the boot of his car and opened it; inside there was a rocket launcher. Something that he had never used in a real situation. That was his job now. The FBI weren't taking any risks with Hannibal; they didn't want him to escape again. If there was only him in the car they were to blow it up, no questions asked. John got the rocket launcher and positioned like so many times before in training. He looked through the aim hole and moved it to Lisa's car that was slowly moving over the horizon.  
  
"Fire when read!" He heard Wayne say. He looked at the target in front of him. The car that had the infamous Hannibal Lecter in the drivers seat. He pulled the trigger and watched the rocket fly from the launcher and hit the car. Then there was the fire it was loud and orange and glowed in the night. The explosion died down and then officers behind them with fire extinguishers ran to the car and hosed it down. John ran to the car and when he got there he was puffed out it was a good two hundred meters away from where he had fired the rocket. He looked at the charred body inside. He was hoping Hannibal's face would be intact so he could see that he was the one who killed him but there was just a round black head there.  
  
The fact the police rocketed the car helped his escape even more. They now thought that he was dead so he could take his sweet ass time to get to the other side where a small duffel bag rested. He had put it there in case he was arrested by the cops and thrown into Washington Jail. There was a change of clothes and some disguise gear, which consisted of a fake beard that could be applied with glue and a professional wig. Not as good as plastic surgery but enough for him to go about unnoticed. He swam harder and faster the dark around him was his friend it concealed him. He loved it for that.  
  
Chapter Thirteen: A realisation.  
  
Clarice drove the car, they were at first going to just go to the house, but she decided to go to the school first to get some information on Sherman the janitor there was a whole file there on every staff member at the school, maybe he had some relatives that they could question. They were driving and Jack's phone hummed. He picked it up and put it to his ear.  
  
"Jack Crawford!" He said not knowing who it was. There was a frantic voice on the other line that claimed to be a worker of his.  
  
"Jack? Fuck! Hannibal Lecter he killed Terry and Lloyd!" It was a strange voice but he soon recognised it as Lisa's the guard in charge of the Lecter security. He would fire her the next day.  
  
"Okay, be very calm. You have to be calm! Now I'm going to send the back up squad I organised in case this occurred." He said calmly. Clarice wondered what he was talking about. Could Hannibal have escaped?  
  
"Okay, Send all the cops that you have. He's stolen my car and is driving up route 66." He heard her say frequently. The phone went dead and he put it on his lap wondering how to break the news to Starling.  
  
"What happened?" Clarice asked. She took her eyes off the road as they were going straight and there weren't any obstacles in sight.  
  
"Hannibal Lecter has escaped." He said. Clarice wasn't shocked. Something inside her had expected it to happen. She felt a strange sense of victory inside her. Hannibal was like a friend to her after all. She put the news beside and kept driving back towards the school the sooner she got there. The sooner she could investigate the homestead of Psycho Fetish.  
  
They came to the school minutes later and parked out the front. Clarice got out of the car and Jack was right behind her. They ran up the stairs and into the school heading towards the main office.  
  
Joyce was still sitting behind her desk with a folder in her hand. The smile that would have been there was not. It was a frown she was looking over the staff file on Sherman Harris the school's janitor. She shook her head and then Clarice and the older man burst in, what was his name? John? Jack. It was Jack Crawford she remembered.  
  
"Hello Joyce." Clarice said sounding a little flustered like she had just come back from one of the jogs out with Ardelia. She took a seat in the chair that was only mildly comfortable. Jack sat down in the seat next to her she realised how much she had missed being able to sit next to Jack Crawford of the FBI.  
  
"Now Joyce, what was the file you wanted us to see?" Clarice asked, once again getting straight to the point she had no time to fool around. The sooner this case ended the better.  
  
"Well here is the correct address, the one I gave you over the phone was spelt wrong." She said and handed a slip of paper to Clarice. She looked at it and realised that she could have used the address she was given in the car but Joyce had some weird knack about giving everyone the proper directions.  
  
"It's sad to see a man like Sherman Harris turn into a bad egg." She said. Looking down at her desk as if somehow she was to blame.  
  
"Yes I know. Its very hard when someone you know and trust turns out to have a remarkably different lifestyle." Jack said trying to tell the principal when it wasn't her fault when it truly wasn't. Clarice would have felt empathy for her but something struck in her mind the feeling of gut instinct hit her hard again.  
  
"Excuse, me what did you say his last name was?" Clarice asked to clarify. She had a hunch. He had the same last name as the morgue attendant and Whispering Willows was a small town so the chance of that being a coincidence was a slim chance. Crawford hadn't realised it yet.  
  
"Harris, he has a brother who works at the morgue. Thomas. Tom Harris." She said and smiled as if she had helped them somewhat. Maybe it was nothing; maybe the brother had no idea about his sibling's deadly behaviour.  
  
"Thank you. We must go now." Clarice said. They got up and left. They came to the car and were both thinking the same thing. Where would they go first? To the morgue or to the house. They got to the car.  
  
"Where do we go?" Clarice asked. Jack was thinking. He looked at the address.  
  
"The morgue is on the way to this. The house is abandoned. Why don't you go and check out the house and I will check with Tom." He said. She nodded and they got in the car. She didn't think for one second if Jack was being a coward by not letting her do the safer task. Maybe it was to build her stronger. She didn't know right now. All she wanted was to get inside the guys house to see if it was really him. They drove and came to the morgue, Clarice stopped and Jack got out. He closed the door and before he went to leave he looked at her through the window.  
  
"Clarice. Be careful." He said. Clarice nodded and Jack walked off. Clarice drove down the road looking at the directions scribbled on the paper. She matched the directions to a street sign and smiled.  
  
"Gotcha!" She said. She turned the car down the street and drove to find the house number. Number thirty-two.  
  
Jack ran into the morgue and was greeted by the same overweight woman that greeted him and Clarice the first time. She smiled, Why shouldn't she, she had nothing to worry about.  
  
"Is Tom in?" He asked calmly. He had known Tom and he was a nice person not a violent one like his brother. This would be simple, he would ask him a few questions about when he saw his brother last and things like that.  
  
"Yes, he has been expecting you Jack. Go down the hall to the autopsy room." He obeyed walking down the hall to the autopsy room having a creepy feeling that something was up. He came to the door and pushed it open. On the tray was a suitcase. It was black and wasn't lock. There was a note on the top of it that said 'open.' Jack had a strange feeling but he walked over to the suitcase and opened the top of it. He heard ticking and when he opened it he saw a LCD display clocking counting down it was on five right now ticking away slowly. Jack looked at the silver canisters in the suitcase it was an explosive he knew that much just by looking at it. It looked powerful enough to blow up the entire morgue. Jack froze in panic a move that could have cost him his life.  
  
"Oh Jesus!" He murmured under his breath. The clocked ticked down slowly, a single bead of sweat rolled down his forehead. 


	8. 13-14

Chapter Thirteen: Explosive Consequences.  
  
Jack looked at the bomb, and its LCD display clock counting down to the time where his life would end. Something in his mind came up with two decisions. He could turn and run and maybe make it out with harsh burn scars, or stay and cop the full force of the explosion, judging by the canisters it would be enough to leave a hole where the morgue once was. He decided to run. Jack spun around without thinking and ran down the hallway to get out, it took him seconds but those seconds were hours in his mind. He came to the fat woman behind the desk, she stood up in panic.  
  
"What's the matt…" She said, she was interrupted by a loud deafening bang. Jack realised he had no time to get out the door so he spun around to face the direction of the fire, it came out of the door like an orange wave and headed right for him, his jaw dropped and the flames came closer licking him with it's dangerous lips. Then he was swallowed by it. The flame covered his entire body and he felt nothing but heat. Jack closed his eyes and didn't know whether he was in the air or on the ground all he could feel was the tremendous burning pain all over his body. He closed his eyes and saw Clarice Starling.  
  
Clarice parked the car, a few moments ago she heard a soft bang coming from somewhere behind her but it wasn't enough to cause her any alarm. She was outside the front of the house, the one that Psycho Fetish had once stood in. The fact that Psycho Fetish once lived within the walls sent a shiver down her spine. She edged her way forward toward the front door and came to it. She knocked on it slowly unaware of the person watching her from within the curtains. She suddenly felt like she was back outside James Gumb's home. Remembering how she had no idea it was his residence and her seemingly endless game in the dark.  
  
"Hello, is there anyone in there?" She asked, maybe there were squatters in there or something. Clarice tried to look through the old blinds but couldn't see anything. She had a bad feeling about the soft bang she heard before but her mind kept telling her it was nothing. She put her hand on the old brass handle of the door and felt her hand slowly twist it. The door pushed open and a ray of light from the open door filtered part of the front room with light. She pulled out her torch and turned it on, a tool, which could have served handy back when she was in the basement of Buffalo Bill. She walked in slowly shining the torch all over to see what she could see. All the while the figure hiding behind the old couch was watching her and waiting.  
  
"I'm Clarice Starling of the FBI, if anyone is in here. Show yourself now or you may be prosecuted." She said thinking it would scare any kids hiding in the house. If there were kids in the house they weren't scared of her empty threat. She walked into the house thumbing the wall for a light switch, the torch didn't provide as much light as she wanted. She found a switch and flicked it on. Light filled the entire living room she turned around to look at the main wall and her eyes opened wide in horror. She dropped the torch and felt it roll a short distance away from her. The wall was covered with pictures of her. They were formal photo's, newspaper clippings; there were even some photos that Psycho Fetish had taken himself without her knowing. The whole wall was covered with images of her face and at the top of it written in red paint was: Clarice Starling.  
  
She heard something move from over behind an old couch she pulled her gun from the holster and held it in front of her. Her hair fell over her cheek the way it always did whenever she aimed her gun at something.  
  
"I'M CLARICE STARLING, STAND UP NOW!" She boomed. Realising how stupid she would look if it were just a rat behind the lounge. She had to suspect everything now. She didn't know whom to trust. The sound of the soft bang was forgotten; her thoughts of Hannibal who had escaped were gone. Now she was thinking about the old couch and what was behind it. She moved over forwards towards the couch. She heard her heart thump in her chest, and she wished that there were nothing behind the couch.  
  
Suddenly a man jumped up from behind the couch, it was Tom Harris the man who worked at the morgue. Sherman's brother, he lunged out of Clarice and they tumbled on the ground together, Clarice's gun slid along the old carpet about one meter away from her. She was pinned underneath Tom.  
  
"Clarice Starling." He said softly. She looked at his crazed eyes and kneed him in the balls. He rolled over in pain. Clarice got up and ran towards her gun. She picked it up and aimed it right at him.  
  
"DON'T YOU MOVE!" She boomed trying to sound powerful. She did, Tom felt scared by her voice. He stopped moving and put his hands in the air.  
  
"Don't, shoot Clarice it's me. Tom you know me Clarice. I've been searching for my brother, I've known it was him since the beginning." He said. Clarice suddenly felt she could trust this man. He was a good man, he was looking for the killer as well. Just because they were blood relation doesn't mean they were working together. Clarice lowered her gun.  
  
"Why did you jump at me?" She asked, a fair question. She had hurt her elbow from him lunging at her and wanted an explanation.  
  
"I thought you were Sherman. You have to believe me Clarice." He said. She nodded and lowered her gun rubbing her sore elbow with her free hand.  
  
"Why didn't you tell us you knew it was your brother?" She asked, huffing and puffing from the sheer excitement of it all. Clarice loved the feeling of adrenaline rushing through her veins, one of the pros of being an agent.  
  
"Because I thought that I could protect him. That maybe if I spoke to him it would all be okay." He said. He was moving towards her with his hands in front of him trying to ease her down, all the while she was rubbing her sore elbow. She put her gun back in the holster.  
  
"Your brother is a mad man." She said. She didn't know what else to say. She wanted to hear the full story of their life but didn't want to at the same time. She really wanted to find Sherman Harris the one that killed Ardelia.  
  
"My brother has always been like this." Tom said, he sat on the old couch with a glum look on his face.  
  
"What do you mean?" Clarice asked sitting in a chair across from him that was probably older than her.  
  
"Well, he always wanted to harm things. When he was fifteen he killed our family dog. They put him in an institution and he was showing signs of improvement. They let him out on one condition that he obtained a responsible roll in society. He became a janitor." Tom said. Clarice didn't understand there was nothing in the file about his brother being psychotic.  
  
"Why didn't they say something about it in his staff file?" Clarice asked in all honesty.  
  
"Because they wanted to cover it up. My parents were respected members of the school PTA board. Until they died, now he goes and does something terrible like this." Tom said shaking his head, Clarice could see that he felt guilty for his brothers actions as if he were a bad brother. She didn't know whether to hug him or leave him. In the end she decided to call Jack Crawford to tell him about how Tom wasn't at the surgery but here in the house. She pulled out the phone from her pocket and auto dialled Jack. She put to the phone and was surprised by the message left.  
  
"The number you have dialled is out of service." The kind woman on the other end of the line said. Clarice was in sudden shock. The light bang she heard, it had something to do with Jack. She could feel it deep in her bones like when she knew that the man standing in front of her twelve years ago was truly, Buffalo Bill. She ran out of the house and got into the car, Tom followed right behind her and got in the passengers side. They drove down the road faster than the speed limit. Clarice turned the car and came to the main road she sped down it as fast as she could and soon she saw it. The fire where the morgue should have been she, stopped the car out the front and got out as fast as she could. There were police everywhere and three ambulances. The ambulances meant that there was hope of someone surviving. She ran up to a tall man who was in charge.  
  
"What happened here?" She asked in panic. She had a bad feeling about Jack Crawford and desperately wanted to know if he was alive or not.  
  
"Sorry, no civilians." The man said showing no emotion in his voice. Clarice didn't think or say anything, she just ripped out her I.D. and flashed it in front of the man.  
  
"I'm FBI." She said and felt proud. He nodded and let her through the tape. There were people all coming out of there homes to see what all the commotion was about, they were all looking at the fire as if they had never seen it before.  
  
"What happened?" She asked trying to calm herself down. Trying not to panic like she had at the Ardelia crime scene.  
  
"There was an explosion, a bomb. Four people were in the building three are dead and one is in critical condition, he is suffering severe burn wounds." The man said. Clarice noticed a stretcher hauling Jack Crawford from the burning building to an ambulance. She ran up to him. Jack was suffering severe burn wounds and was scorched from the fire, he had no hair and his clothes were burnt off. His spectacles were still on and he was wheezing. He was alive. Clarice hated to see her boss like this; she hated it like she hated seeing Ardelia's body.  
  
"Oh Jesus!" She said and put her hand over her mouth. She ran to an ambulance worker that was overseeing the whole operation.  
  
"Will he be okay?" She asked in desperate panic. Her hand was over her mouth and lukewarm tears were running down the side of her face.  
  
"Do you know him?" The man asked without showing any signs of sympathy or empathy. He just stood there with a clipboard.  
  
"Yes, he's my…" She was about to say boss but decided not too.  
  
"He's my friend." She said. He nodded and let her climb in the back of the truck. Tom was in there behind her, had tagged along. They drove down the road to the hospital.  
  
Chapter Fourteen: A phone call.  
  
Four days past and Clarice didn't leave the side of her beloved friend. Tom went back to his house; he was upset because of all he had left in the morgue that was his. He came back once every day to visit Jack to see how he was doing.  
  
Jack was in severe critical condition, they had operated on him to try and salvage any skin tissue they could. A part of his skin was missing entirely exposing the bone they managed to keep him somewhat stable all though they gave Clarice all the signs that meant that he was most likely going to die. The only thing that kept his charred lungs from working was a respirator that made a noise that burned into her memory like her fathers police hat. A noise she would never forget.  
  
He was moved into an intensive burn victim's room, which was good, because it meant that Clarice could be in with him for most of the day. She ate at the hospital and slept there. All the while waiting for Jack to die, or to live all depending on fate.  
  
Tom Harris sat beside Clarice, she had her head in her hands and dry tears stained her cheeks. Tom didn't know what to do. Whether to hug her and comfort her or just give her space. There was a knock at the door and then a nurse entered.  
  
"Excuse me, Clarice Starling. You have a phone call." She said peacefully trying not disturb the quiet. The only noise besides her voice that could be heard was the humming machine that kept Jack alive.  
  
"Okay then." She said and got up, her voice wavered but no one mentioned it. She went to leave with the nurse to follow her to get to the phone but at the last minute turned back.  
  
"Tom, would you stay here and watch him?" She asked as she wiped the tears away from her face. He nodded and smiled it was a warm smile that she could trust. He was the closest thing to a friend that she had around here even though she hardly knew him. She turned and followed the nurse down the hall and came to a phone that was sealed off in a small room for privacy. The nurse opened the door and let her in, Clarice walked in and took the phone wondering who it could be. She put it to her ear and waited for the voice.  
  
"Hello Clarice." It was the electronic voice of Psycho Fetish/Sherman Harris. She stood there not frozen just unable to move. Like she was stiff or something.  
  
"You created the explosion didn't you?" She asked mortified, in a soft whisper voice. She heard laughing on the other end of the line and was fucking furious at the killer at the other end of the line.  
  
"It's amazing the techniques you learn, when you spend a few years in a fucking nut house." Was his response. Clarice looked at her shoes and felt the tears coming again. She wanted to cry but didn't want the killer to see her as weak.  
  
"You are going to die. You know that don't you!" She said, trying not to sound angry and desperate but angry and powerful.  
  
"We all die Clarice, it's just a matter of when. I don't think your friend Jack has much left on his clock." He said and giggled. She shook her head and looked at her shoes that were far better than the ones she first went to interview Hannibal in.  
  
"I see you met my brother, isn't he nice." The man said. Clarice was disgusted by the very sound of his digitally enhanced voice.  
  
"What do you want?" She asked. She wanted for this to end. She wanted to be able to sleep in her old apartment again, she wanted to kill the man on the other end of the phone.  
  
"Clarice, the end is drawing near. Soon one of us will be dead. Right now I am about to give you instructions for your last task. Only this time it isn't Ardelia of Jack at risk. This time if you don't obey my orders, you will die." He said. Clarice was ready for it all to end, she was fed up with all this tedious crap.  
  
"What do you want?" She asked, she fetched a pen and paper out of her purse ready to scribble down some instructions. She wouldn't need them.  
  
"Meet me at the school's basket ball court. I think you know where that is. Go there right now Clarice. Its time for the final Waltz." The line went dead. Clarice dropped the phone and left the pad and pen there. This was it. The final confrontation between good and evil. This was where the fate was to be decided, at the basketball court of Whispering Willow's high. 


	9. end

1 Chapter Fourteen: The Last Waltz  
  
Clarice put the phone down without making much of a fuss. She didn't panic or drop the phone to draw attention. She simply slid it on the hook and someone outside watching her might think that everything was okay. However inside her she felt entirely different. She felt twisted and sick as if something was eating her from the inside. She wanted to scream out for help but didn't want to in the same time. Clarice had a chance to do something about the man who called himself Psycho Fetish. She had a chance to avenge her friend's death and she was going to.  
  
Clarice walked back down the hall to the room where the fried crispy Jack Crawford lie sitting there waiting to die. She entered as if the phone call was from a friend and Tom looked up at her from a magazine he was reading, Clarice didn't catch the title. She walked over to her purse and grabbed it. It weighed a lot because it had her gun in there. She left for the door hoping that Tom wouldn't say anything.  
  
"Where are you going?" He asked as he put the magazine on the chair next to him. He was sitting there wanting to care for her. She desperately wanted to care for him back but couldn't she was above caring now. All she wanted was to see his brother die a gut wrenchingly horrible death. Wanted to see him suffer the way he had made the girls suffer.  
  
"Just back to the hotel to get something." She said watching the lie come out of her mouth and the way her breath tasted after the lie. It was truly horrible. Soon all the lies would stop because soon it would be all over. She could leave the FBI forever and never return. Soon Psycho Fetish would be dead.  
  
"Okay then, can you pick me up a pack of smokes?" He asked nicely. She nodded without saying something and Tom noticed that she was white as a ghost. There was something wrong with her. He knew that she wasn't going to get cigarettes she knew that she wasn't going back to the hotel either. The plan was falling into place. He felt like evilly laughing but didn't as to not arouse suspicion. He kept quiet and waited for Clarice Starling of the FBI to leave.  
  
Clarice pulled up in front of the school she stopped the car and got out. It was entirely dark. With her torch on she read a sign that directed her towards the basketball court. She followed a dirt path for about fifty meters and came to an open hall. It stood out because the lights inside were on she walked slowly up the dirt path and came to the inside pavilion. She walked into the middle of the court and waited for something to happen. She heard a scratching sound as some activated the intercom.  
  
"Welcome Clarice. Now throw down your weapon. The one in your purse!" The voice said. Psycho Fetish didn't have the voice box anymore. His voice was normal and not unlike his brother. She took out the gun from her purse it was slightly bigger in calibre than the one that Crawford had strapped to her ankle that day.  
  
"Throw it Clarice into the centre of the room!" The voice over the P.A system said. Clarice looked around everywhere to find someone over a microphone but couldn't. She lobbed the gun into the centre of the basketball court and stepped away from it.  
  
"Good Clarice." A voice said. It came from behind her. She turned around to see a man wearing glasses. He had thinning hair and his spectacles were like Jack Crawford's. He had a narrow pointy little face and when he smiled at her he looked a lot like the way Tom smiled at her. He was an ordinary man you might pass by during the street. Someone you wouldn't worry about he wasn't suspicious in any way shape or form. Clarice wondered how a man like that could do such a thing and then remembered that there are ways. After all the most intelligent man she knew was a killer. A good one at that. Before she could say anything Sherman put a cloth on her mouth they contained some sort of drug. She struggled to not breath it in but eventually she collapsed. She was awake she was just too tired to move. She wasn't exactly paralysed it just hurt her physically to move any muscle. He dragged her to the centre of the room.  
  
"Now Clarice, this is going to my final project. You are going to be my last victim. Because of you Clarice I will be famous and you will be dead." He said and started dragging her to the centre of the room. He dumped her body down and she felt something tugging at her pants. She moved her eyes and saw that he had pulled her panties and jeans down. He was going to rape her.  
  
"Now, to rape you would be just plain ordinary. But to kill your and then rape you, well everyone would call me a sick fuck. So…" He said as he pulled out a knife with a long sharp blade. He held it in front of her and smiled. She could see and hear him but couldn't do anything about it. He held the knife high in his hands above his head and positioned it just below her two breasts. He drove the knife down and Clarice closed her eyes ready to be stabbed but something stopped. There was a gunshot and Sherman moved to the side. She opened her eyes and saw Sherman holding his stomach and blood all over his plain white sweater. The knife he held in his hand was on the floor next to her.  
  
"Oh Sherman you have a lot to learn." It was the voice of Hannibal Lecter. Never before in her life had she been so glad to hear that voice. The voice she had once found terrible was now all of a sudden a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day.  
  
"Hannibal Lecter." Sherman said and smiled. He was stepping back slowly smiling, blood was dripping from the wound in his stomach and onto the floor. Clarice was silent on the ground her pants down to her ankles her pubic hair open to all eyes. She didn't care about that. All she cared about now was what was going on between Hannibal and Sherman.  
  
"You know I looked up to you! You were my role model!" Sherman said and laughed out loud. Her spat up blood all over the court and wiped some away from his face. He was not a tall man but not a short man he was average height. His skin was clammy and pale due to the gunshot.  
  
"The first rule is…never keep your back turned to an open door, no matter how alone you might feel." Hannibal said smiling wearing the clothes he found in the duffel bag on the other side of the lake. He pulled the trigger of the revolver again and another bullet went into Sherman this time into his left rib cage. Sherman took a step back and moaned in pain. Then he smiled.  
  
"Why…Why are you shooting me…because I was gonna rape your little bitch Clarice?" He asked in agony. Hannibal laughed at the question, Sherman noticed that Hannibal had a fake hand on his wrist from where Starling had cut it off. He read about that in the paper and was mystified by it.  
  
"No Sherman, I'm killing you because you thought you could be better than me." He said. Hannibal smiled and pulled the trigger again. The bullet flew and hit Sherman in the left eyeball. His head tilted back suddenly and he let out a strange sound than fell to the ground bleeding all over it. The vile red ooze nearly touching Starling knew parker. Hannibal walked towards Clarice and came to her. He got to his knees and pulled her pants up.  
  
"It's important that you lie on your side Clarice. It will go away faster if you lie on your side." He said tilting her body to its side. She felt grateful and could feel her movement coming back slowly.  
  
"Well Clarice, looks like I came just in time." Hannibal said and flashed that wicked grin of his. The one that had made her so nervous when she first went to visit him all those years ago. Then there was a noise. Someone grabbed Hannibal and dragged him about ten meters back away from Starling.  
  
Hannibal groaned in pain as the man behind him stabbed him in the shoulder. He let the man take him away from Clarice. The man behind him was Tom Harris Clarice had talked about him once to one of the guards. He had just stabbed Hannibal in the back with some sort of screwdriver.  
  
"You fucker! You shot him!" Tom said crying in tremendous sadness. Clarice noticed there were tears in his eyes. She wondered what she could do, if she didn't act fast Hannibal would be stabbed to death. She looked up and noticed that her gun was to far away to reach.  
  
"Now you must be Tom, Sherman's delightful brother. I'm sorry he wont be able to join us for tonight's events." Hannibal said in the tone he always said when he was trying to get underneath someone's skin.  
  
"You shut up! Shut the fuck up!" He yelled and Hannibal and Hannibal nodded. He kept quiet in his mind he heard some soft piano music playing and he was thinking of ways to get out of the uncomfortable position. His pulse rate was normal as if he were sitting in a soothing hot tub relaxing listening to music.  
  
Clarice looked at Tom holding Hannibal in a hostage position. She was waiting for the strange paralysis to leave her body. He was holding a bloody screwdriver to Hannibal's neck and she wanted to get him. She knew deep down inside her that Tom had been in it all along, shit he was probably the one who set up the bomb. She didn't care about that. The one she wanted was dead but she wanted to set Hannibal free so that meant she would have to kill Tom.  
  
Clarice was wondering what she could do inside her head and then she felt something itch at her ankle and she remembered. The gun that Jack had given her. She had put it on just before she drove off from the hospital. She reached down to her ankle as fast as she could and pulled out the gun she jumped to her feet and every muscle in her body was aching. She pulled the gun out in front of her and lined up the sight. Tom's head was just peaking behind Hannibal's it would be a tricky shot but it was either that or watch Hannibal being stabbed to death right in front of her. She lined it up as best she could and closed her eyes. She felt total stillness and pulled the trigger. She heard a man groan loudly and then a thump. She couldn't physically bring herself to open her own eyes, as if they were glued shut somehow. She opened them after a few seconds and saw Hannibal Lecter standing there alive staring back at her. She smiled and her eyes moved down to Tom and the steaming bullet hole in his left cheek. She smiled wider and Hannibal moved towards her. Clarice dropped the gun and moved towards Hannibal. They met in the middle and hugged each other. It was a strange feeling but Clarice guessed she would have hugged anyone had they been standing there. She hugged him tight and for the first time in what seemed like years she felt complete satisfaction.  
  
After a minute they parted and Clarice looked into Hannibal's eyes. Those red maroon eyes that she loved and hated so much. He looked at her again and for the first time that they had met they had nothing to say to each other. To either side of them were two dead brothers. The ones who had worked together to kill young women.  
  
"Well Clarice, I guess we both survived another obstacle that is in our lives." He said smiling. He was wearing simple clothes that he managed to make look as if they were extremely elegant.  
  
"Hannibal, how did you know?" Clarice asked. He put his finger to his lips and then put them on hers.  
  
"Don't worry about that Clarice." He said and smiled. She smiled back at him and became lost in his gaze. She could have stayed there forever in that hall but then she wanted to be so far away from it that she could have vomited. Suddenly she heard something. It was the sound of police sirens. By the number of sirens there could have been the entire police force.  
  
"Now Clarice I must get out of here." He said. She shook her head and stopped him from moving. He would have to go sooner of later to keep away from the police but she wanted him to say. She wanted to stay in his arms forever.  
  
"Of course, you could come with me Clarice." He said and smiled. She got what he was saying immediately. It would work too. They could go off together and live and the police would just write this case off. They had no idea Hannibal Lecter would be involved. Clarice and Hannibal could stray off and live together like a normal couple on a beach somewhere. She debated the idea over in her mind thinking about what they should do.  
  
Suddenly there were footsteps coming from outside, the very path she had walked down to get to the hall. It was the police, if they were to leave together than they had to do it now or they would be caught. Both their eyes turned to each other and Clarice looked deep into his eyes. She had loved him once a long time ago she was sure of that but now she was not so sure. Everything seemed so difficult. Should she go with Hannibal and destroy all of her moral values. It would kill all the relationships she currently had with anyone. Or should she face the harsh world again and be alone forever. Why is it when you have important life decisions you only have such a limited amount of time to make them?  
  
Chapter Fifteen: To go or not to go.  
  
Officer Bob Brady heard the gunshots at the doughnut shop. He got his coffee and got into his car. Within seconds he was at the school he ran down the path towards the basketball court. A place that he had played so many times as a teenager. He remembered the good old times where nothing could go wrong and exam results didn't matter as he ran up the path. Light glowed from the courts and he pulled out his gun not knowing who to find inside. He ran up to the door and kicked it open holding his gun out in front of him.  
  
"Freeze Police!" He yelled to the open room. Whether there was someone in there or not he couldn't tell because his eyes were closed.  
  
He opened his eyes to see a single woman standing in the middle of the hall, he looked closer at her and realised that it was not just anyone but Clarice Starling the Lecter agent. He felt a swarm of cops behind him move in and yell aiming their guns at her.  
  
"Hey! This is Clarice Starling. Show her some respect." Bob yelled and the men looked at her closer and then lowered her gun. Clarice stepped forward; she was wearing a man's jacked which seemed strange. She took out her identification card and flashed it in front of the cops there would have been about twenty of them.  
  
"That's okay Clarice. I know who you are. Looks like you bagged him." He said. The officers had all read about the whole Psycho Fetish case in the local paper they never thought that they would ever become involved in such a case but now they were standing in front of the Clarice Starling and the two dead brothers that helped each other create a massacre.  
  
Hannibal heard the sound of the footfalls outside they was getting closer and he was still waiting on an answer from Clarice. She was obviously thinking about it and had she more time to think he might have had a chance but alas there was seconds before the police would come bursting through the door and Hannibal knew the answer before she even hinted at it. She knew that she would never run away with him that she could never really love him.  
  
"Hannibal I…I cant." She said. The police growing nearer and nearer. Hannibal nodded in disappointment. He didn't show it on his face but Clarice could tell that he was upset. He nodded and smiled. He turned and went to leave by the back door but before he could go Clarice stopped him by grabbing his arm. She turned him around and kissed him on the mouth and once again she returned to the warm place. The place she would never go to but never entirely leave. The place that she wished she could be so far away from but be so close to. She was in Hannibal's embrace. The footsteps grew closer and they departed. Hannibal took off his jacket and put it on Clarice.  
  
"You don't want to catch a cold Clarice." He said. Which was odd because the night was not particularly cold it was not hot but you wouldn't offer your jacket because of fear of them catching a cold.  
  
"See you round." He said and ran for the back door. Clarice watched him run towards the door and out of it. He disappeared from her life once again which was both good and bad. A police officer burst in through the door with his gun out. Clarice could tell just by looking at him that he had never experienced anything like this before. But why should he. He is just an ordinary cop working in a small town.  
  
Clarice opened her eyes and realised she was sitting on the passengers side of the squad car. She must have dozed off because it was morning. There were cops surrounding the outside of the school and most of them were in the hall taking pictures of the bodies. Clarice was in the school car park there were cars all around her and the car park was amazingly large for just a school car park. She woke up and noticed a cup of take-away coffee was in a drink holder. She picked it up and drank the warm liquid. It filled her with warmth and she never felt better to drink it more than she ever had now. Clarice was still feeling a little slow from the poison that Psycho Fetish had made her breath in. She felt her limbs were still sore and numb. Clarice got out of the car to stretch her sore aching body and as she did she felt a phone vibrate. Then she realised that she was still wearing Hannibal's jacked the one he had put on her. The phone rang again and she pulled it out. She had never seen that phone before in her life. She answered it.  
  
"Hello?" She asked confused. Wondering whom it could be on the other line even though she had a good estimate as too who it was.  
  
"Hello Clarice." Hannibal said. A shiver went down her spine, as her brain understood his metallic rasp that was his voice.  
  
"Hannibal. Where are you?" She asked looking around frantically to try and find him, after a few seconds of looking she gave up and decided that sometimes you didn't need an explanation.  
  
"I'm watching you Clarice, but don't try and look for me you wont be able to in time. I just wanted to say goodbye Clarice I've decided that America is not my place to be and don't plan on coming back there again." He said. Clarice sat back down on the edge of the passenger's seat she rubbed her sore legs trying to get full feeling back into them.  
  
"Where will you go?" Clarice asked mystified as to where he would go next. He wouldn't go to Europe surely not that would be too risky.  
  
"Well Clarice I've always wanted to see a kangaroo hop in it's native country. Do you know where kangaroo's come from Clarice?" He asked, it was a quick geography question. If Hannibal weren't a psycho or a psychiatrist he would have been a teacher. She thought back and remembered, it didn't take her long.  
  
"Australia, you're going to Australia." She said and smiled. She heard the noise of cops further off in the hall but didn't worry no one would bother her in the car park they all thought she was still sleeping.  
  
"Well done Clarice. Tell me before I hang up are you going to leave the FBI?" Hannibal asked. The question came a shock because Clarice had never decided on what she was going to do. She thought of the question and couldn't find an answer.  
  
"I don't know." She said and laughed. Hannibal on the other end of the line loved the way she loved. Loved the way she moved. He wanted to be with her and hold her under the stars forever but knew that that would never happen and had to give it up no matter how difficult it would be.  
  
"Well Clarice I guarantee you that the answer will come over time. And when it does you will be all right. Anyway I have to go now, don't want to hang around the cops much longer." He said. Clarice felt a shockwave of realisation. He was in the car park. Clarice looked around and saw a car start up and reverse. It was close to the exit of the school. She tried to run towards it but couldn't it sped off down the roan and over the hill. It left her vision and in the review mirror she swore she could see him smiling back at her.  
  
"Tata H." Hannibal said. The phone went dead. Clarice put it back in her pocket and got back in the car, she snuggled up in his jacket and stayed in his sweet aroma. She stayed in the car for a few more hours sleep soundly, then Bob Brady came back and drove her back to her hotel.  
  
Epilogue: A new offer.  
  
Clarice entered the board of directors. It had been four months since she put a bullet in Tom Harris's head, four months since she kissed Hannibal in the hall and saw him drive out of the car park. It seemed like a long period of time but it wasn't to Clarice, she could swear that the poison was still in her body. Then she remembered that it could just be the fact that she was getting older.  
  
Clarice took a seat opposite four elderly men. They had rang her last night about news. It had something to do with Jack Crawford who now rested in one of the best FBI medical facilities in all of America. To get information about him was almost impossible but the board of directors promised to keep her informed. When Clarice was summoned by them she was worried that Jack might have died. The board of directors where shuffling through some papers they looked up at her and then one coughed his name was Lance Powell.  
  
"Well Clarice, we have spoken for quite some time now." He said. He was getting old in time and Clarice smiled at him. He was a few years older than Jack Crawford.  
  
"Last night received a phone call from our Chief medical doctor about Jack Crawford, I regret to inform you that Jack will never be able to walk again." He said. There was a sense of relief that came over Clairce. He would never be able to walk but at least he was still alive.  
  
"He suffered severe burn damage from the force of the explosion and it was lucky that he survived at all." Lance went on. There was a smile on Clarice's face and all the time she couldn't help but think of Hannibal Lecter living it up in Australia.  
  
"We called you in here because we need some to replace him as Chief of Behavioural Sciences. Clarice I discussed it with the other members and they agreed that you would make a fine chief of Behavioural Sciences. What do you say Clarice, will you come back to the FBI?" Lance asked. Clarice thought the question over in her head. Should she join the FBI again or should she get a crappy little pension and live her life as an old woman. She wanted to join the FBI but didn't want to at the same time. She remembered the main reason she wanted to join the FBI. To become just like Crawford and now she could be like him.  
  
"I will take the job on one condition." She said. The men smiled knowing that they had made the best choice. Clarice was a fine agent and would make a great Chief. They wondered what the condition was.  
  
"I want two months vacation time. Before I start." She said. They smiled and nodded. Lance reached out and Clarice shook his hand. They had an agreement.  
  
"Where you going to go?" Lance asked as they shook hands. Clarice smiled and looked at him in his eyes. She remembered the phone conversation they had in the car and felt herself laugh.  
  
"Australia." She said and let go of his hand. Clarice left the office and went down the elevator she got into her Mustang and drove back to her apartment. She cracked open a bottle of good wine that the good doctor would appreciate and smiled. She packed her suitcase. She was truly happy. She had never been so happy for over a decade now.  
  
  
  
Authors End Note:  
  
Well there it is. My first ever fan fiction completed, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed making it. I would like to thank everyone that reviewed me and gave me positive feedback, if it weren't for you guys I would never have continued. I thought that it would be good to just get one good review and to finish with over thirty is marvellous. Anyway I am going to start another fan fiction very shortly only I don't know what on yet.  
  
I also wrote an alternate ending. It was the original ending that I had in mind but changed it because it was too dramatic. I wanted to end on a light note not a sad one. If you want me to put that ending up than email me or write a review because I would gladly do so.  
  
I would like to also Thomas Harris for writing such a tremendous character that is Hannibal Lecter. I would also like to thank everyone who submitted their fan fics for me to read. Most of them are fantastic.  
  
Thank you all very much  
  
-Mason Fox. 


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